


A Forest Interlude

by VillainousShakespeare



Category: Henry IV - Shakespeare, Henry V - Shakespeare, The Hollow Crown (2012), The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses (2016)
Genre: Alternate History, Angst, F/M, Fingering, Fluff, Hand Jobs, Historical, Oral Sex, Pregnancy, Pregnancy complications, Seizures, Shakespearean Language, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:21:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 80,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24939721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VillainousShakespeare/pseuds/VillainousShakespeare
Summary: Eleonore discovers a wounded man in the woods near her home and seeks to heal him. Little does she know that it is none other than the heir to the throne, Prince Hal of England.
Relationships: Hal/OFC, Henry V/OFC, Henry/ofc
Comments: 598
Kudos: 137





	1. Fallen in the Forest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eleanore, better known as Nell, finds a stranger in need of aid. Drawn in by his beauty and her own compassionate nature, she decides to nurse him back to health

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have wanted to do a Hal/Henry story for a long time and have finally gotten up the nerve to do it. I am going to try to keep the flavor of the source material, but obviously it will be AU!
> 
> Hope you enjoy!!!

"Not so fast, Nell. My bones are not so spry as once they were."

"Keep pace, old man! I will not wait for you."

Despite her unsympathetic words, Eleonore slowed down a bit in deference to her companion's age. She was not heartless, though she might like to play as if she were. She knew that Duncan had accompanied her in a sweet, if misguided, desire to protect her. Not that the old castellan could offer much in the way of protection, but he loved her as his own daughter, indeed was closer than ever her real father had been. It was not his fault that age and reduced circumstances had wreaked such havoc on his once solid limbs. It was just that she was in a bit of a hurry.

"You are certain, lass, that you did hear a noise?" Duncan fretted as he picked his way behind her.

"I did. You know my ears are sharp, my friend. I swear I heard a horse, and then a crash. It came from just beyond that copse of trees."

It was true, her hearing was something of a legend in her family. It was a blessing and a curse, both. More times than she could count, Eleonore had overheard words not meant for her ears. Sometimes it was crushing, as when the Earl of Kent had sworn to her brother that he'd sooner wed an unbroken stallion than a wild cat like her, with no more claim to feminine graces than to flight. 

Mostly, however, it gave her advanced notice of the events of the world that were all too often kept from young women of "good lineage". Without her talent for eavesdropping, for instance, she would never have known that her father had been banished by the newly enthroned King Henry IV, sent away to the continent to live in gentile, penniless exile. No, she would simply have watched and wondered as all of their fine things, down to their very castle, had been taken away from them with no explanation spared for the exasperating youngest child who had more questions than sense.

She had been out this morning on her weekly forage for herbs to use in the medicines she brewed in their far from exalted cottage, striding about the forest in a cast off pair of her brothers breeches and doublet, altered to fit her slender frame, hair confined with pins beneath a smart green hat, when she had heard the commotion.

They were always alert for the sound of armed men these days. Since her father's fall from favor there was no longer a guarantee of safety for the rest of them. An older woman, a maiden daughter, and an ancient family attendant with only servants to look after them, no garrison or men-at-arms, were often fair game for the reckless youth and outlaws that plagued the area. Naturally, her ears had perked up at the sound of neighing and clomping of a horse, shortly followed by a yell and a crash.

She could only guess at what had happened, but it sounded as though someone was hurt. It might be none of their concern, but it might also be one of her brothers or a man of her father's come with tidings from their Lord abroad. Perhaps even with coin for those of them left in England to fend for themselves. She was getting heartily sick of wild hare, even if she was improving daily in catching it.

As Eleonore pushed past the close clump of trees, she saw that it was indeed a fallen horseman that had made the racket she had heard. There was no immediate sign of the mount, but lying on the ground in the clearing was a young man clearly dressed for riding. 

Drawing nearer, Eleonore's breath caught in her chest, for surely she had never seen a comelier man. All of the young men she had been in contact with until now were of her brothers' ilk: barrel chested, faces hidden beneath beards, dressed in serviceable greys and browns like the tunic she sported now. 

The man on the ground was as different as chalk from cheese. His cheeks were smooth as her own, with fair skin that yet looked as though it saw its share of sun. The bones of his face were fine, sharp enough even in repose to cut from the looks of them. His tousled copper hair had a slight curl to it where it touched the collar of his soft leather jacket the color of deep mulled wine. Though his shoulders were broad, there was a lithe, lankiness to his long frame that was almost delicate. His large, black gloved hands, however, looked more than capable of handling the sword slung at his hip.

Dropping to her knees in the damp leaves beside him, Nell gave thanks that such a blanket had been there to soften his fall. The forest was rocky in areas, he could easily have split his head had he fallen in the wrong place. A quick touch of his neck located his pulse, strong to her relief. She swallowed as the impersonal contact nevertheless seemed to send a shock of awareness through her body. This was an undeniably handsome man she had discovered, helpless near her home.

"All the angels protect us," Duncan gasped as he at last made his way, puffing, to her side. "Who is here?"

"I cannot say, beyond that which you see," she shrugged. "Some lordling by the look of him, and rich."

"And handsome too, think not my eye missed that," he added, looking at her pointedly. "Does he yet breath, or has he waked his last?"

"He breaths," she affirmed, continuing her examination of him. "But I think that his arm is broke. He used it, I would guess, to break his fall. It will need to be set, and he needs rest."

"He's resting now, it's no concern of ours," Duncan told her, not sounding as though he thought it would do any good.

"You would have me leave him here to die?" she demanded, rising to dust the dirt off of her knees. "At mercy of the beasts and scavengers? Are we then come to that? Are we so lost? _Noblesse oblige,_ that you did teach to me, what says that to abandoning the hurt?"

"You are your sainted mother's daughter, Nell" he sighed, not bothering to fight the inevitable. "Your father, or your brothers, were they here, would leave the stranger to his own poor fate."

"Well for him that they are far from home," Eleonore said determinedly. "Now help me find some branches strong enough to fashion with his cape a conveyance. We will bring him home and tend him there."

"Headstrong girl," Duncan muttered, already looking for the wood. "You make an old man proud."

It was some time later, and with the assistance of servants sent for, when Nell finally had the stranger resting safely in the spare room of their cottage. 

They had found his horse, a huge white charger, not far off from where he had thrown his master. Eleonore had used a coil of rope tied to the saddle to create a make shift sleigh that aided in dragging the man back to her home. He had moaned in pain, still fortunately unconscious, as they pulled him across the uneven ground. She had instructed the two serving men they still had on staff to lift him onto the spare mattress and cut away his jacket that she could have a better look at his injury.

Now, alone in the room with the half naked man, Nell found herself unaccountably shy. It made no sense to her. She had been tending wounds since she was a small girl. It was a woman's work, her mother had told her with a sigh, to heal the wounds that men inflicted. She had lost count of the number of men she had stitched up, the number of bones she had set following her father's numerous forays into battle. Never had any of them made her feel the tingling uncertainty she felt as her fingers brushed across the hard muscled chest of this stranger.

Trying to focus herself in her work, Eleonore catalogued the large bruise purpling one side of his exquisite torso, and the lump she could feel just above his hairline. That last was actually the most concerning. She would need to wake him up soon, otherwise he might fall too deep into the black and never resurface. Wanting to get the painful work over before rousing him, she called Duncan in and had him hold the man while she set his arm. It was quickly done, and he only called out briefly in his sleep.

"I should call you mother to attend him," Duncan mused, eyeing the man as though he were a snake. "It is not proper you should be the one."

"I've mended men a thousand times before," she shrugged, feigning indifference.

"That is different, and you know as much. The knights and yeomen of your father's guard would sooner die than do you injury."

"What injury think you this man here could do?" she asked with a forced laugh. "He is as harmless as a new born foal."

"I pray you, madam, say it be not so," a rich, low voice rumbled from behind her. “For never would my reputation bear it.”

Nell let out a shriek and spun around. The man on the bed had opened his eyes, a startling shade of crystal blue, and was attempting a smile. She could see the pain he tried to hide, and wished there were more she could do to alleviate it.

"You are awake," she said, stating the obvious.

"Thanks to you and your skill, I dare to say. It is you, is it not who I must thank? I heard your sweet voice as you tended me. And though I could say nothing in reply, it made the pain much easier to bear."

"I am glad to hear it," she smiled, wondering where her wits had gone. "Don't get up. You need to rest and let your wounds to heal."

"May I not know your name, dear angel mine," he asked, eyes melting into hers, "that I might know to whom to send my prayers?"

"My name is Nell," she said, before Duncan could answer. "Nell of the Arden Wood."

She could not say why she didn't give him her full name. Perhaps it was embarrassment at her family's lowered state, or some too-late attempt to salvage her reputation. All she knew was that she did not, in that moment, want to admit to being Eleonore D'Amboise, daughter of Charles D'Amboise, Count of Danbury.

"A lovely name most suited to it's owner," he smiled back at her.

"And your name sir, if you would be so kind," Duncan asked, glaring at him.

The handsome stranger seemed almost to pause, and for a moment Nell feared that he had suffered a loss of memory. Such a thing could happen, particularly with a head wound. To her immense relief he smiled wider, blinding her almost with the beauty of it.

"Harry Le Roy," he said. "but Hal, unto my friends. The which, fair maid, I hope includeth you."


	2. Angel of Mercy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hal wonders who the mystery woman tending to him is and sets out to find out everything about her.

He hurt everywhere. 

After a lifetime of working with the finest, most exacting masters to hone his body into optimum killing condition, Hal had become able to shrug off the sort of pain that would cause most to wail. True, he might have more of a reputation for debauchery than for warcraft, but that was a matter of careful planning. Despite his time spent in the lowest taverns and brothels of Eastcheap, he never let a day go by without putting in his time in the practice yard, no matter how severe his hangover might be. And yet, for all that, the pain he felt now was excruciating.

He didn't need the lovely voice, soft and low, to tell him that his arm was broken, though he did enjoy the soothing way in which she said it. Nor did it come as a surprise when he heard her murmur over the bump on his head. He could tell from the throbbing behind his closed eyelids that he had hit the ground hard, despite trying to break his fall with his arm. From the waves of pain he felt as they dragged him over the rough terrain of the forest he was fairly certain that more than one rib was cracked, or at very least bruised, as well. He kept his eyes closed as they traveled, and did his best not to scream when a larger sized rock or branch was crossed. It seemed rude to do otherwise when they were clearly trying so hard to spare him pain.

The calm, melodious voice provided an excellent focal point as he listened to her issue orders in a tone of one obviously used to command. He wondered what she looked like. If she was half as appealing as she sounded, she would be a vision indeed. Even her hands, where they gently caressed his somehow naked torso (he had blacked out completely for a moment when they lifted him onto the blessedly still mattress) were like a balm where they touched his stinging skin.

Perhaps she was a lonely widow of a deceased knight, or a wife temporarily abandoned for some field of battle. Hal was not picky. Either way, she would surely be in want of company, and he would be more than happy to thank her for the tender care she was showing him. Once he was somewhat healed, of course. He would be of little use to her at the moment. Although... the way his lower member twitched when her fingertips grazed over his abdomen suggested he might be able to rise to the occasion, injuries be damned.

When she at last ceased tormenting him with her arousing touch and began speaking to the ancient sounding man he vaguely remembered hearing before (God above, he hoped the dotard wasn't her husband! Such a sweet-voiced angel deserved better than that!) Hal at last risked opening his eyes. The wave of nausea and agony was to be expected, and he bit down on the side of his cheek to steady himself as he let it wash over in waves. As the worst passed and he could finally see, Hal took a moment to scan his surroundings. 

The room was neat and well furnished. He was on a surprisingly large bed, not just a pallet on the ground. A comfortable fire from fresh cut logs crackled in a hearth not far away. On the wall opposite him hung a tapestry intricate enough that he could not quite make out the pattern of it with the way his vision still swum a bit. Something to do with hunting, he suspected. Seated on a stool near the door was on old man, quite as much a dried out sack of bones as he had sounded, dressed in deep blue robe that while simple and understated was nonetheless of clearly of fine workmanship.

All of this was forgot in an instant as Hal's blue eyes moved to fall upon the other occupant of the room. A plump widow, he had thought. If God was smiling on him. He had never in his wickedest imagination supposed he would be blessed with the vision standing, hands on luscious hips, before him.

Long hair, obviously just released from some sort of confine, fell down her back in waves the color of winter wheat. It was not blond, exactly, but rather light, tawny brown kissed with sunshine glowing in its strands. There was a wildness about the way it billowed about that made it look as though she had just risen from a lovely tumble. She was dressed, delightfully, in men's clothing. Soft leggings molded themselves to the most shapely legs it had ever been his pleasure to look upon. He cursed the darker hued tunic that came down barely long enough to keep him from learning just how they also hugged what was certain to be a scrumptiously round bottom. The rather shapeless top could not, hard as it tried, hide the trim waist and ample bosom from eyes as well seasoned as his. He was certain that her breasts would fit perfectly into his large hands, and even more sweetly into his eager mouth.

Despite all of the wonderous potential of her body, it was the sight of her profile that almost undid Hal. He had known from her voice that she was not some simple peasant woman. He had not, however, been expecting the clear, glowing skin, or the fine, straight cut of her nose and high cheekbones. He had certainly not been prepared for the intelligence that shone from her grey-green eyes, even when turned partially away from him as she was now. This was no simple hedge knight's woman, he would bet his life on it. He didn't know who she was, but her breeding shouted itself loud enough for anyone with knowledge of the world to see.

"What injury think you this man here could do? He is as harmless as a new born foal."

The words, spoken as they were in a voice which had been causing him to sin in all manner of thoughts, cut him deeper than any of the wounds he had suffered in his fall.

"I pray you, madam, say it be not so," he said, layering in a caress as he propped himself up as much as he could. “For never would my reputation bear it.”

To his delight, the vision let out a shriek and spun around to face him fully. Lord, she was a temptation. Young, yet old enough to be wedded and bedded, though perhaps not in that order if he had his way. Her full lips parted in an "oh" that was rich with invitation, and her long lashes brushed her cheeks as she blink in shock. 

"You are awake!" 

"Thanks to you and your skill, I dare to say," he smiled, trying to mask the hurt in doing so. "It is you, is it not who I must thank? I heard your sweet voice as you tended me. And though I could say nothing in reply, it made the pain much easier to bear."

"I am glad to hear it," she replied, quick smile discovering a dimple in her cheek. "Don't get up. You need to rest and let your wounds to heal."

"May I not know your name, dear angel mine," he asked, finding the desire to hear it strangely urgent, "that I might know to whom to send my prayers?"

"My name is Nell. Nell of the Arden Wood."

Now that she spoke it, he could remember hearing the grey beard call her such on the arduous trek through the forest. Clearly, she was speaking true, and yet something in her manner gave him pause. The quick movement of her eyes towards her companion and away, the catch of her voice as she added the appendage - there was more here than met the eye. Alas, he was currently in no condition to sort it.

"A lovely name most suited to it's owner," he purred, wishing she were close enough that he might claim her hand and bring it to his lips. He was finding he missed the touch of her skin against his.

"And your name sir, if you would be so kind," the old man demanded. Clearly, the surly gentleman was astute enough to their sex that he had some inkling of where Hal's mind was repeatedly sinking. He would need to tread carefully, he decided.

Now it was Hal's turn to hesitate. If he told them his true identity he knew how it would be. There would be bowing and ceremony and a proper doctor sent for. He would lose the opportunity provided by the snugly intimate surroundings to get to know this lovely lady better, and he intended to know her very thoroughly indeed.

"Harry Le Roy," he said. "but Hal, unto my friends. The which, fair maid, I hope includeth you."

The blush that stained her cheeks at his flattery turned them a lovely shade of pink. He wondered how much it would take to extend that blush down her graceful neck and onto her as yet only dreamed of cleavage. Not a lot, he would expect. She would not be used to court manners out here in the wilds, so far from London.

"I hope, indeed, to count among your friends," she told him with a smile. "But you must rest, good sir, and let me know if I can do aught else to ease your pain."

What he desired her to do he could hardly ask for, he thought. Especially with the old man present. He was just wondering how to get the gentleman to depart when Nell turned to her companion and spoke in a peremptory voice.

"We must attend the comforts of our guest. Go, have a basin full of water brought, then speak to Maude and have her start a broth. He will need something to regain his strength."

"Nell," the man said in a warning tone, but the girl drew herself up to her full (if miniscule height) and assumed an air Hal was well acquainted with.

"I will not ask again, go see it done," she ordered as imperiously as his father ever had.

"As ever I obey in everything," the retainer grumbled, hardly sounding as servile as the words implied before shuffling out of the room.

"You must excuse poor Duncan, good my lord," she murmured, dragging a stool over to next to the bed and sinking onto it, "for he has served my family many years, and therefore thinks me still a child I fear."

"A fault that comes from love, and therefore none" Hal replied, trying to decide what the scent was that clung to her. Trees and lilac, he thought perhaps. It was intoxicating whatsoever it was. 

"Have you any memory of your fall?" she asked, taking on an almost professional tone. 

"A most politic way of asking me if I be such a horrid man o’ horse as to be unable to keep my seat," he said, pulling a face. "I do assure you, mistress, 'tis not so. I swear to you that I can ride for hours and never break the pace or call for rest, and yet care for my mount with tenderness, so that when we our destination reach, both she and I are more than well content."

He was uncertain if she caught the double meaning in his words, but he rather thought that at least some of intention shone through by the way her eyes flickered down to her hands for a moment where they twisted together in her lap. He would swear, he decided, that she was a maid, which was delicious but also problematic. It meant that she would be harder to tempt, and that her ancient guardian would be more vigilant. Still, if he could succeed in seducing her to his bed, how sweet the reward of conquering such an untouched flower.

"Your fall, good sir?" she asked again, overcoming her discomfort.

"I fear that I was rudely set upon," he decided to take pity on her and tell her the tale rather than draw out her discomfort. "A foolish pair of brigands ambushed me, who no doubt thought they had found easy prey. Alas for them it did not prove the case, for I soon had their swords both on the ground and they, the cowards fleeing for their lives. I should have let it go content with that, but in my anger at the disrespect, I gave them chase over uneven ground. The leaves that now do cover up the path hid also underneath their fallen hues a divot in the ground, which my poor mare did step into and interrupt her gait. When she reared up in start and pawed the air, I, much to my undying, mortal shame, was thrown onto the ground and hit my head. And so hangs my sad tale. But I cannot regret the circumstances, how e'er low, that brought me to the care of such as you," he could not help adding. "For surly, any man would risk as much to meet a lady of so fair a face."

"You tease me sir, and flatter needlessly," she dismissed his words with a roll of her eyes.

"Neither, mistress, I swear I speak the truth," he said, meaning it. "I think in all my years I have not seen a pair of eyes that could compare to yours. They sparkle with a frank intelligence that puts all other ladies from my mind."

"And frank intelligence is what men crave," she laughed with a touch of bitterness, "most certainly in ladies that they woo."

"It is in men of worth, if not in all," he replied seriously. "And when so fine an asset also comes embodied in shape almost divine, then what man would not foreswear other gods and worship solely at the shrine of it."

"I think the knock you took unto your head was harder still than I believed it was," she said uncomfortably. Damn, had no one ever told this woman how beautiful she was? It was unthinkable to him. "Rest now, friend Hal, I'll leave you for a time. The servants soon will bring you food and drink. I will return anon and check on you."

With that, she stood and slipped out of the room. Hal cursed at his clumsiness. He had gone to fast too soon. He was not used to dealing with maidens. Normally he avoided them, not wanting the entanglements that they inevitably brought with them. This one though... for this one he would risk the strings. Hell, he could even see bringing her back to court with him and setting her up as his mistress. She certainly had the manners to blend in, though with her looks she would never do so. 

He wondered who she was. The room was well appointed, but the furnishings were grander than the home. Was her father some wealthy merchant who had retired with his family from the stink of the city? And come to that, where were her parents? The old man had mentioned a mother, but she had been easily enough dismissed. What family affluent to keep a learned retainer allowed their daughter to run about in men's dress and rescue fallen princes?

It was all perplexing. Yet as Hal lay there trying to sort it out, his head began to throb. It would have to wait, he supposed. For now, the maid was right. Rest was what he needed. He closed his eyes and tried his best to stop his ever-active mind.

At least, he thought as he drifted off into a fitful sleep, he would not be a loss for entertainment while he recuperated. He could not think of a more enjoyable diversion than the mystery of his sweet Nell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Hal is a bit of a cad, but that seems to me in keeping with the character.
> 
> I am trying something with the dialogue where I am trying to keep a bit of the Shakespearian rhythm, but if it becomes too cumbersome, please let me know. I may change it as we go.
> 
> Thank you thank you all for reading!!!!


	3. Propriety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get a bit of Nell's backstory here, and see more of her point of view. She is determined not to let Hal get under her skin (or her skirt). Doth the lady protest too much?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for your responses to this! Since no one seems put off by the dialect, I am going to continue to try and use my Shakespeare muscle to include some poetic cadence into it. I love each and every one of you who takes the time to read this!!!

She was being a coward and it was unacceptable.

If there was one thing that Nell prided herself on, it was her determination to face problems head on rather than hide away and pretend they did not exist. Lord knew she had seen often enough that the alternative did not produce the desired results.

And yet last night, after fleeing the room when the handsome young stranger had begun to flirt with her, she had retreated to her own chamber like a sniveling weakling and stayed there, letting Duncan bring the injured man his supper and see to his wounds. It was a humiliating show of faint-heartedness and utterly beneath her. She would rectify it at once this morning.

If only he were not quite so very good looking, she thought with a sigh, or perhaps a bit less charming. True, he was overly bold and familiar, but the cheeky smile and sparkle in his eye as he shamelessly flattered her - and both while he lay injured and in pain no less - made the trespass all but impossible to despise. Far from despise it, she had felt her body reacting to the warm, almost lascivious nature of his comments in ways she was ill prepared to deal with.

None of the handful of knights and lordlings brought home by her brothers who had deigned to flirt with her had ever produced such a riot of sensations within her. At most they had inspired a weary indifference, at best a noxious desire to put as much distance between herself and them as duty and manners would allow.

But with Harry, _Hal_ her mind supplied in a tone dangerously akin to a caress, the response had been quite different. For one thing, all of the moisture that usually resided in her mouth had sunk decidedly lower, making her uncomfortably aware of the more womanly parts of her anatomy. For another, her midsection seemed to become home to a torrent of hummingbirds that all swarmed about looking for an exit. Where in the past she would have let free with a scathing set down, last night it had been all she could manage to issue a gentle rebuke and hurriedly leave the field of battle. 

Eleonore D'Amboise was made of sterner stuff, she reminded herself. She was still the woman who had emptied a chamber pot over the head of the lecherous Earl of Kent's head when the revolting noble had the audacity to pinch her posterior a mere day after being caught naked from the waist down with a kitchen wench in the stables. She was more than up to the challenge of facing off with an overly friendly lord. She assumed he was a lord, even if he didn't say so - it was stamped like a brand into his very essence, from his speech to his free way with his manners.

After spending possibly a bit more time with her morning toilet than usual, and then an additional fifteen minutes rebuking herself for doing so, Nell squared her shoulders and strode from her room, intent on setting a new tone in her dealings with the invalid in her care.

"Eleonore," a soft, strongly accented voice called as she stalked her way towards the kitchens. "Walk like _une damoiselle"_

"Yes, _Maman_ ," she replied automatically, slowing her stride and cursing her luck. 

"Will you not wish your _Maman bon matain?"_ her mother demanded from her seat on the settee near the window.

"Of course _Maman_ ," she sighed, changing direction and dropping a light kiss on her mother's beautiful pale cheek. "You look _tres belle_ as e'er."

It was true. Elouise D'Amboise never looked anything but lovely. From the top of her curled head, still golden if now laced with more pale strands, to the toes of her dainty feet, Nell's mother was the epitome of the desirable French Lady. She might rarely leave her room these days, and never the confines of the comfortable cottage in which she was forced to reside, but all that did was add to the paleness of her complexion, the delicateness of her manner.

Nell loved her mother, in all honesty she did, but more than anything else she saw her as a cautionary tale. Elouise D'Amboise had been the celebrated beauty of her age. Daughter of a minor branch of the renowned D'Amboise family, she had lived a life of pampered luxury in France, sought after and feted by legions of admirers. When a young, upstart Count from England had swept in to win a grand tournament and thereafter her heart and hand, it had caused a wave of sensation through the courts of two nations.

Charles Danbury was dashing, handsome, and as skilled with the ladies as he was with his sword and lance. He was also tremendously ambitious. By marrying into a family of such exalted lineage he succeeded in raising his profile exponentially. He had even gone so far as to adopt the D'Amboise name as part of his own. They had been happy, in the beginning, she was told. His castle was not so grand as Chateau D'Amboise, but it was comfortable and well appointed. They produced three children, an heir, a spare, and a daughter, before his eye began to wander, eventually never to return.

That had been the first fatal blow for Elouise. All of her life she had been adored by brilliant, desirable men. When suddenly her ardent spouse had become portly, and worse than that, more interested in the young wife of a blacksmith than in her, she had come apart. Uninterested anymore in keeping his wife's attention, Charles dismissed the bards and the poets who had loitered about the castle, replacing them with aging men after his own fashion.

Elouise had not been best pleased, and had shown it by wantonly flirting with them all, making an infamous name for herself in the process. She had even gone so far as to demand that he send her and Nell back to France, that her only daughter not be deprived of learning some semblance of culture.

When Henry the Usurper had seized the throne and Charles had been unceremoniously divested of his castle and sent into exile, he had taken a last, bitter revenge on his wife. While he left for France, taking his sons and even, to add insult to injury, his mistress with him, he had left Elouise and Nell behind to make the best of the woodland home they had been allowed. Now, Elouise haunted the cottage like a ghost of more extravagant times, refusing to alter her dress or actions to suit her new environment.

This was what came, Nell had long ago decided, from letting your sense be led astray by a winning smile and a way with words.

"And you, _cherie_ ," Elouise looked Nell up and down with a practiced eye, "look much more _a la mode_. I almost - almost - do not loathe that dress. Is there a reason for this, _ma petite_?"

"No reason," Nell lied, desperate to escape, "but that it was near to hand."

"Just that and not _le seignior_ visiting? I hear, petite, that he is _plus tres beau._ Perhaps I should attend on him myself."

"My dear _Maman,_ " Nell said in a strained voice, "do not exert yourself. The man is handsome yes, but not so much. And you would care not for him, I am sure. A callow youth, and lacking courtly grace."

She had to tread carefully, she knew. If her mother thought their visitor was worthy of her notice, she would without doubt descend in all her beauty and grace into the sickroom, sadly desperate for the validation only a comely young lord could grant her. Nell, in that circumstance, would be left on the other side of the door, mixing potions or preparing food, but not allowed to enter, lest she demonstrate by her mere existence her mother's advancing age. On the other hand, if Elouise thought the patient was too below their notice, or too rough a creature, Nell would be banished with no less haste. In that case, motherly instinct would suffer itself to rise in an effort to keep her only daughter, the heir of all she was, from sullying herself with those beneath her.

Nell could not say, exactly, why she was so desperate not to be barred from Hal's room. Or at least, she was not willing to admit the reason. It must be, she decided, that she had to redeem herself from her craven retreat last night. If she failed to appear today, he would think her cowed by his mild flirtation, and that was unacceptable. That was doubtless all there was to it. It had nothing to do with the way his crystal blue eyes seemed to look straight into her soul.

"Very well, my Nell, I'll let you be. But waste not too much time on such a one. Ah, to think that once there was a time when all the glittering throngs of chivalry would each contend to carry but our fans! And now we languish, prisoners to fate, with none to lift our spirits from their depths. I think, _enfant_ , that I shall go to bed. 'Twas rash of me, I see, to leave my room."

"I'll send Maud with a comfit, good _Maman_ ," Nell said, saying a quick blessing for the mercurial nature of her mother's moods.

"You are my only comfort, _ma petite_ ," Elouise smiled with sad eyes at her daughter. "If only you would not so hide your looks. But, _voyons_ , what matter in this place, where none there are to see in any case." 

With another heartfelt sigh Nell's mother rose and made her way, hips swaying elegantly despite there being no one but her daughter to appreciate the sight, back to her room. Nell closed her eyes and counted to ten after the door closed to make sure that Elouise was truly gone before lifting her skirt and taking off apace towards the kitchen.

Ten minutes later, heart beating rapidly no doubt from her brisk trot and no other reasons, Nell gave a firm nock on the door to the guest room in which Hal rested. When a response of "enter" in a voice well at ease with command greeted her words, she swallowed once and pushed the door open with her hip, bringing his tray inside.

"Good morrow, good my Lord, did you sleep well?" she asked, bright smile plastered on her face an in her words.

"As well as might I in this bed alone," he smiled impishly at her, an incongruous expression given the purple hue trailing down from his hairline and shading the area over his eye. "But I do better still now that a light more blazing than the sun has graced the room. Fair maiden, you do put that golden orb, in all its gaudy showiness to shame."

"Were you this way before you struck your head?" she asked, keeping her voice matter of fact as she set his tray on the table next to his bed. "Is it perchance a symptom of your fall? You need not use such o'er blown words on me. I am no simp'ring Lady of the Court to fall to pieces at your flowery words."

"I speak but what I see, oh mistress mine," he smiled at her, letting his eyes drift over her person in a way that made her clench inside. "The lovely hoyden in the boys attire that tended to me yesterday has changed into a princess now I see her dressed in finery befitting of her sex."

"I am my own self's mistress, no one else's," she told him repressively, ignoring the way her pulse leapt as she touched his forehead to gauge his temperature. "How are your arm and head? How are your ribs?" 

"A nuisance, a mere trifle, I assure you," he shrugged, only wincing slightly as he did so. "I would, in point of fact, be on my way, and trouble you no more with my poor self, if I did not bethink it would be worse than all these wounds together to my state to never see your sparkling eyes again."

"My Lord, give way. I am not for your bed!" 

The words were out before she could pull them back. Heartily in that moment, Nell wished for death. Whatever had possessed her to say such a thing aloud? She might be a bit lacking in social niceties, she knew that. But a gently bred young lady, daughter of a Count and Countess, did NOT speak of bedding to a gentleman she barely knew! Particularly when said gentleman was lying, shirtless and gorgeous, on said piece of furniture and her hand was currently pressed against said person's naked chest. Good heavens, she _felt_ his heart beat jump when she said the word! 

To her everlasting mortification, Hal's face split into a smile like to kill her from its sheer cheekiness. His eyes glittered with unsuppressed amusement and his own mammoth hand came to rest over hers, completely engulfing it in his long, elegant fingers.

"Now there's a statement must give me no joy," he said, holding her reluctant gaze with his own. "I fear though, you mistake me, good my heart. While any man would leap to have you Nell, I, as you see, an invalid remain. A victim of your smiles and your eyes, as ever much as of my graceless fall. And thus, how could a one so gravely struck, contrive to tempt you to so sweet a sin? You must not think my intent so untoward."

"My Lord, I beg your pardon humbly," she stammered, trying in vain to remove her hand from his vicelike grip. "I know not why I said so rude a thing. Here is your food, I pray you, let me go."

"Ah no, sweet Nell, I fear that I cannot. I am, you see, a poor, pathetic man. And only you can help relieve my plight."

As he held her hand and stared into her eyes with a gaze both pleading and sincere, Nell found herself having difficulty drawing a breath. What was it about this man that set her so off edge?

"What would you have me do, sir, for your aid?" she asked quietly, unable to look away.

"Why, lend me company and stay and talk," he said at last, just as she was beginning to think that his mind, once more, was about to dip down forbidden paths. "I will be honest with you, Mistress Nell. It is much easier to fight the pain and to forget about the injuries, with you here in my room to pass the time. Please you, gentle angel, to allow a penitent devotee this one wish, and leave me not alone here in this bed."

"In the bed you will remain alone," she told him, saying the word deliberately this time, and deriving a small thrill from the naughtiness of it. "But I will sit beside you if you like, and talk or read to you to pass the time."

"A man could ask for nothing more than that, and die a happy death if you acquiesce," he smiled, leaning back down onto his pillow with another grin.

"There'll be no talk of dying in this house," she told him in a scolding voice. "I did not drag your body all this way from where I found it fallen on the ground to see all our hard work be brought to naught."

"I hear and I obey, oh mistress mine," he laughed. "Now, what is it you have brought me to eat? For if one hunger be not to be slaked, there still remains the other to attend."

Nell rolled her eyes heavenward. She feared that rather than deter him with her rash pronouncement she had driven him on. It was the exact opposite of what she wished. Why then, a small voice in the back of her mind asked, did she thrill as he winked at her and reached for the bowl?


	4. Hal's Dilemma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hal ponders what to do about Nell, who remains just out of his reach, and makes a shocking discovery.

By the end of the first week, Hal could honestly say that he had never met anyone like his Nell. He was already calling her that in his head by the second evening, which was a touch alarming if he thought about it too much.

She was smart, deftly switching from world affairs to the makings of the dressings for his wound, depending on the conversation. He was surprised to learn that she had come up with the healing concoction herself, and could account for the medicinal properties of each of the herbs. It was also she who had set his arm as neatly as any of the palace physicians could have done. 

Mere hours later, she was debating with him the merits of the Welsh claim to independence. Were she a man, some of her views would have struck Hal to the quick, bordering as they did on treason against the crown, as personified by his father. When they came from a beautiful young woman in the back of beyond, however, he decided to find it charmingly refreshing to hear opinions bandied so freely. Of necessity, his usual companions tended to temper their more revolutionary sympathies around the heir apparent.

After that first day when she had brought him to her home, Nell always dressed appropriately when visiting his sick room. She seemed to be doing everything she could, in point of fact, to discourage his more ardent tendencies. He found it vastly diverting. She might think that the high necked gown she wore the evening before, for instance, was restrictive to his gaze. It did, after all, cover all of her soft flesh that he loved to ogle. What she failed to take into account, fortunately for Hal, was the way the dress molded itself so perfectly to her body, concealing yet defining and enhancing all of her delicious curves.

Hal would sometimes behave himself. Why, just today he had gone three whole hours without slipping something outrageous into the conversation. True, for two of those hours she had been out of the room, but he still considered it a clear demonstration of his restraint.

It was just too delicious to watch her fight with herself over how to respond to his deliberately proactive conversation. With out fail, a delightful blush would stain her cheeks, often dipping down to encompass whatever show of décolletage she had allowed herself that day. Some times she would simply ignore his comment, determinedly continuing whatever discussion they had been having as though he had not just compared her body to a ripe fruit he would like to nibble, or suggested he would sleep better with something warmer and softer than a pillow to cozy up to. Other times she would offer a firm rebuke in repressive tones that would make the strictest governess proud. 

Every once in a while, though, he would catch her off guard with his outrageous, though always true, comments. It was those times which he found himself living for. Nell's breath would catch, and he would see her tense as her pupils widened. He was experienced enough with the shadings and signs of desire to know what that pointed to. She might be saying all of the proper words, but his sweet nurse wanted him. He could see it in the way her eyes would drift to his lips when she let herself relax for a moment. It was there in way her fingers lingered on his bare skin when she tended to his injuries, caressing rather than prodding along his ribs.

He really was not sure what he was going to do about it. Oh, Hal knew beyond doubt what he _wanted_ to do about it. If given his free rein, the Nell would under him right now, naked and moaning as he plowed her into the mattress. He would spend weeks showing her all of the myriad of ways that they could bring each other pleasure, teaching her just how to use her mouth and gentle hands, and what he could do with his as well. He had no doubt that she would be a marvelous pupil, that they could take each other places he had not often found with lesser bedmates. It made the fact that she continued to elude him all the more frustrating.

It was not that Hal had never been told no. There were occasional wives who through fear, piety, or more rarely genuine affection or even love for their spouses had turned down his advances. But on the whole he had but to fancy a woman for her to open her legs or mouth for him. He knew his title had more than a little to do with it. Women were as mercenary as men, and the future king was a smart person to have fond memories with. He always made sure the memories were good, for the women as much as himself. His ego demanded no less. His ego also knew that his princely title alone was not all that drew women flocking to his bed.

If only she were not a maid. Any doubt on that score had long since been erased from his mind. Had her deflowering happened ere now, she would already be sharing his bed. He was at once irritated that no obliging knight had rid her of her cursed virginity, and contrarily angered by the mere thought that some undeserving oaf might have deigned to do so. She was made for a prince, was his Nell. No lesser person should have the privilege of her maidenhead. 

It would also aid in his pursuit if he knew who she was. He was quite convinced by now that she was of noble and very likely high birth. She was frighteningly well educated, no doubt by the worthy Duncan who haunted their conversations like a wraith, making sure Hal was not too free with his young charge. The ancient functionary had all the markings of a high placed steward and tutor.

She also, though refreshingly candid and natural most of the time, could at a moment's notice adopt a manner that would be perfectly at home in the most vaunted courts in England. Sometimes he thought he caught an expression on her face, particularly when she allowed herself to be a bit naughty, that he almost recognized. Had he, perhaps, met a relative of hers at court? What then was she doing living in a cottage on the edge of Arden Wood, tending to injured travelers? 

Hal knew what his friend Ned Poins would say. His fellow rogue and drinking companion would no doubt urge Hal to stop playing the prude a come to the point with the woman. Take her to his bed if it was at all possible, have her as many times as needed to scratch this particular itch, and then head back to London where beautiful women were to be found for the asking (and sometimes a coin).

He had written to Ned on the third day of his confinement. He needed to get word to the court of his whereabouts, and his Poins could be counted on to alert Hal's brother of his ignominious fall. It was not as though Hal could write to his brother directly. A note to a minor son of a noble house like Ned was far different than sending a missive to the Duke of Gloucester, second in line to the British throne. His letter had not included Nell. He could not say why exactly, but he found himself loathe to discuss her with the bawdy rascal.

"My lord, the day has broken clear and bright," the subject of his thoughts said, bounding into his room without bothering to knock. 

Nell was, to his delight, dressed once again in her brother's clothes. The dark green fabric outlining her legs made him long to run his hands all the way up their length, to see if he could make her wet where they met. The fact that a dagger hung and her waist and a bow and quiver clung to her back somehow only made her appearance more arousing. Here was a woman who didn't shrink from the physical. If she was willing to be so bold in the woods, how wild might she be between the sheets, wrapped around him as he strove to tame her.

"You come then now to mock me, dear my love?" he asked, nudging the bedsheet up to cover the obvious bulge in his trousers.

"Why no such thing, I come to free you, sir!" she smiled, ignoring his endearment, though that tell tale pink tinged her fair cheeks. "For if you think perchance your weakened legs and your frail body might just bear your weight, I think the time has come when with some care to venture from your bed may do you good."

Hal laughed at her implied disdain for his physical strength. 

"Thou sassy wench, were it not for your sex, " he sniped, sitting up and stretching as much as he could, noting how her eyes followed the play of his muscles beneath his skin, "then I would show you just how frail I am! Yay, and you would be sore for full a week!"

"And here I thought your taste ran more to maids," she said daringly, arching her eyebrow. "How have I misread your proclivities!"

"Beware, my heart, you tease me at your peril," he warned her, standing up. After her proactive sally he found he no longer cared that the proof of his desire for her was insistent and impossible to miss. "This is no lion tame, nor yet a cub, that you do risk your chastity to bate."

Nell's eyes, large to begin with went wide as she took in the outline of his cock straining for release of its confines. Quickly, she darted her eyes upward, but he took no pity on her, meeting her gaze with frank desire and pride in his own look. As Nell gasped for air and turned positively scarlet, Hal took a step towards her, raising his good arm to cup her face with his hand.

"The lion rampant stands before you now, and will devour his prey if she so taunts," he purred low as he moved his face mere inches from her own. "And yet, methinks the doe that I would catch is not so loathe to die the little death."

For a moment they stood as such, a breath away from a kiss destined to ignite the blaze between them. Just as Hal began to move his head the one last inch, a jolt ran through Nell's body and she tore herself away, scampering to the other side of the door.

"I shall send a page to help you dress," she told him, words tumbling out as she sought to make good her escape. "Meet me in the yard when you are done. Unless you find his company more sweet."

With that last teasing statement flying over her shoulder, his Nell quit the field, leaving him to chuckle in her wake. He would show her, he decided. Nell was spoiling for him to ravish her, and far be it for him to deny her. She would learn just what happened when you provoked him too far. 

It was in a remarkably good mood, considering the pain involved in donning a tunic with his injuries, that Hal made his first foray out of the cottage. He had risen before, to relieve and bathe himself, and on two occasions to stumble down to the main room to dine with the others. This, though, was his first time in the sun, and he had not realized how much he had been missing it. 

The sky was indeed clear and blue, not so much as a puffy cloud marring its glory. Under such bright perfection, and surrounded as it was with trees, the large cottage covered with flowering vines looked like something from a bard's tale. Had he stepped, unwitting, into one, he wondered fancifully. After all, it often seemed as though he had discovered a fairy princess, locked away from the world.

As he waited for Nell, wondering what was keeping the woman, Hal realized that there was a nip in the air, despite the glorious sun. Not wanting to catch a chill, and also wanting to be prepared should his charming companion need warming, he retraced his steps to the entrance and reentered the main hall of the cottage. 

There was his Nell! Hal smiled as he looked over to where she stood talking to a woman sitting by the far window. She seemed tense, he thought. The set of her shoulders were wrong. He had enough time to observe her these past days, and the lord knew he had used it studiously. Whatever conversation Nell was having, she wanted out of it. Hal was just beginning to think that he should go and save his damsel when she moved slightly and he got his first good look at the other woman.

He was thirteen again. The years spun backwards until he was a gangly squire, still uncertain in his royalty. When it was melodramatically announced by one of the older boys that the most beautiful woman in all of England or France was coming to court for a visit, Hal had lined up with all of the other unworthy lads to catch a glimpse of this paragon. And she was beautiful. Golden blond hair, sparkling blue eyes, a figure just shy of over ripe, and a knowing smile had made Elouise D'Amboise the woman of every boy's fantasies.

Fantasy and reality clashed together as Hal stared at the woman, older now, more slender and delicate, and lacking that smile that had set their hearts racing, she was still breath takingly beautiful.

She was Nell's mother.

It all fell into place. He knew, of course he knew, that Charles D'Amboise of Danbury had been banished by his father shortly after their visit to the court. The man had held out for Richard till the bitter end, spurning the chance to join Henry's forces. He was also, more too the point, far too cozy with both rebel factions within England and French royalty abroad. Henry had not thought it prudent to allow the hardened veteran to remain in the country, fermenting unrest. 

Hal had even heard, now that he thought on it, that D'Amboise wife and daughter had remained behind, despite being devested of their castle. There was some estrangement, he seemed to recall, between the Earl and his Lady. Poins had even joked about paying the lonely widow a visit, to see if she was still as comely as she had once been.

She was, he had to admit it. Elouise would never be less than beautiful. But as he looked at her there in her ornate gown, hair styled high on her head in an outdated fashion, he could not help but compare her, unfair as it might be, to her daughter. Nell, in her boys clothes and quickly tied back hair, had all of the grace of her mother innately in her movements, and yet none of the artifice. She was more herself, and more alive than any woman Hal had ever met, and therefore more attractive as well. The mother might have set the courts of England and France aflame in her day, but it was the daughter for whom Hal burned with an intense flame of desire.

A desire, he now realized, that he could never act upon. Nell was not some just a noble maiden, she was a virginal Lady with ties to the highest echelons of two royal courts. Her French family was practically royalty, and while the Danburys might have fallen out of favor with the current king, there were still many in England who would see any offence done to the daughter of their house as cause for a blood feud, if not an excuse for war. 

Of all the maids in England, Hal feared, as he looked at his sweet Nell, that he might just have fallen for the one he could not have.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As noted in the tags, this is historical AU, so please ignore the fact that Nell's family would not have been quite that connected, lol. Just go with it for the plot!


	5. A Proposal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nell is elated at her almost kiss with Hal, but when Elouise presents her with news, what will it drive her to?

The flock of hummingbirds that had taken up permanent residence in Nell's stomach since Hal's arrival were fluttering overtime as she skipped down the hall to the kitchens to grab the basket of fruit and wine she had asked to be prepared for them. In her mind she replayed again and again _that moment._ The moment just before when she was certain that Hal was about to kiss her. Every nerve in her body had been alive to him as he stood before her, half dressed and clearly displaying his desire for her. As her breath caught in her throat she had known his intention, craved it to the tips of her toes. 

If they had been anywhere else, she would have stood rooted to the spot while she experienced her first kiss. Or, if not her _very first_ , at least the first that she would return willingly and eagerly. The others had not counted, she told her self, coming as they had as unpleasant surprises pressed on her by odious or simply uninspiring suitors. Hal though, Hal inspired all sorts of sensations in her.

It was the presence of the bed that had spooked her. It loomed, large and symbolic behind him as he towered over her. She wanted to kiss him, had been dreaming of it in fact, but was not entirely sure what she wanted beyond that. The fact that she would even consider anything more was terrifying in itself. Having an over convenient bed in the room with them seemed to tempt fate in a dangerous way.

Besides, she was going to spend the entire morning with him out among the trees taking an easy walk while she looked for game to bring down for their larder. Surely some opportunity would present itself in a less precarious location. In addition, he would be fully dressed, and perhaps if all of his magnificent muscles were not so vividly on display she would be able to comport herself with a bit more restraint.

Basket acquired, she was heading towards the door when the dulcet tones of her mother stopped her. Nell groaned, cursing her luck. She had been giving Elouise regular, daily updates, as was her habit, in her room at the end of each day. Other than that, she had not seen her maman since the first morning of Hal's stay. If she was out of her room now it could only mean trouble, particularly when their visitor was also potentially wandering the halls.

" _Bon mantain_ to you _, ma chere Maman_ ," Nell said with thinly masked impatience, edging towards the door. "You catch me on my way to go and hunt. Perchance I shall bring down a nice, fat deer! Then we shall have a lovely feast tonight."

She should have known better than to hope to escape so easily.

"I have had some news, _enfant_ that you must hear," her mother smiled, waving a piece of paper in her hand. "Sit down and let me read it out to you, then you shall have a thing to feast indeed!"

"What news, maman? Is it from chere papa?"

"Speak not to me of that accursed man!" Elouise snapped, eyes glowing with anger. "For he is dead to me as you well know. No, _ma cherie_ , this comes from quite another. It seems the great Lord of Northumberland is seeking out your hand to be his bride! What say you, darling to the great _honour?"_

Nell stared at her mother blankly as a wave of horror drifted down upon her. She knew the Earl of Northumberland. He had been a guest in their home for months before her father went away. In that time he had been the heir only, bitter and grumbling that his decrepit father refused to die and cede him the title. That alone was enough to turn Nell from the idea of the match, but she was quite convinced as well that the gentleman had been one of the particular admirers of her mother. 

" _Ma chere Maman_ , I fear it cannot be," she said, trying for a light tone and sounding instead as though the words were being strangled from her. "For if I were to go and live with him, who then would have the running of this house? I know you are too frail to see to all, and I would worry for you all alone."

"Why don't be silly, _enfant_ , for of course, I would go with you when you did wed. We would make a _tres_ _bon_ family. And, _ma plus_ _belle_ , I know that you are one who does not seek _les passions_ in men. When you are married to _le bon seigneur_ , he will not be a nuisance in your bed. Once you have given him an heir or two, I am convinced he'll let you have your space. So smile, my Eleonore, for you are blessed."

Nell gaped at her mother. Was the woman really suggesting that she would go along with them, to be the mistress to her own daughter's husband? The thought filled Nell with disgust. She knew her mother had never understood her, but to be so far from the mark? To assume that, just because Nell had spurned the advances of the foolish friends of her brothers, she had no desire for passion, for romance? It was all too horrible to contemplate.

"I am afraid, though grateful I may be, that you have found a suitor for my hand, still I must turn the honor back again. Let speak no more of it, good _Maman_."

"Ungrateful wretch, what would you make of us?" Elouise demanded, anger sparkling in her eyes. "It is the way to bring our family back! The Earl doth make a princely offer here. To turn it down would make us all but fools!"

"Then fool I'll be, for I will not be wed!" Nell insisted.

"I say you shall, as does your cursed _Papa_!" Elouise snapped triumphantly. "What, did you think I had not planned for this? I know you, and your wayward, freakish starts! The Earl hath writ your _Papa_ weeks ago, and for the first time in his wretched life, the man chose to do right for his _famille."_

"Papa agreed to this? That I should wed?" Nell's voice sounded hollow with disbelief.

"He did, and gave his word it would be so," Elouise smiled grimly at her, "that I, before the turn of two months' time, would present to him you, his virgin bride."

"Please do not do this," Nell whispered, eyes wide, "desperately I beg."

"You know not what you want, nor what is meet, to make you happy and fulfill your fate. You should be thanking me for this great _coup_ , and will when you have thought the matter through."

"Never, I swear, will I consent to this," Nell insisted, shaking her head.

"It wants not your consent, so I care not," Elouise replied, a hard note in her voice Nell had rarely heard applied to herself. "Your father has decreed it shall be so, and he has all the ruling of your fate. Go, leave me now! I can not look on you. Who are so lacking in your gratitude."

Feeling as though she were in a waking nightmare, Nell slowly turned around and staggered a few steps from her unfeeling parent. Marry, in two months time! And to a would be lover of her mothers? The very idea made her ill.

As she stood there, blinking in shock, she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. Hal. Hal was making his way hurriedly from the room. A second wave of nausea washed over her.

How could she marry Northumberland, how could she marry _anyone_ when her heart was so thoroughly engaged to another? The very thought of facing Hal with this horror hanging over her was mortifying. She had been planning, just minutes ago, of walking with him, of sharing the first of what she hoped became many kisses. Was all that to be forgot because her parents, with no regard to her feelings, had decided to force on her a despised match?

With a sob of despair, Nell dropped the basket she was carrying and ran, not towards the door through which Hal had just slipped, but rather towards the stairs that would lead to her bedroom. She needed to be alone with her shame. Passing a servant she blurted out instructions in a rapid sequence. Tell their guest she was feeling ill. She would take her meals in her room. She was not to be disturbed. So unusual were her requests that the poor maid stood gaping until Nell snapped at her, and then the scared creature turned and ran to do her bidding. Nell knew she would feel horrid for such treatment later, but at that moment she had no feeling to spare.

How could this be happening, she thought for millionth as she paced the confines of her room later that evening. She had always been a dutiful daughter, but she could not, would not do what was being asked of her now. But what could she do? The unjust law of the land gave her father full authority over her until such time as she was married. If her parents wanted this marriage to rebuild their family fortune, they could compel her to make it.

Her mother was a romantic, she remembered. Perhaps she could go to Elouise again, with a more contrite attitude, and tell her that she had fallen for another. Now that her hand was being forced in this way into a bond she despised, she was beginning to realize how much she truly wanted Hal. She had long since fallen victim to his charm. It was more than that, though, and more than his good looks. He was clever, quick, and treated her with respect for her mind. Despite his colossal ego - what sort of man gave himself the pseudonym "the King" she thought with a mental eye roll - he talked to her as his equal.

It would not work, she realized. Elouise had watched her own love match dissolve into hate. She would put more faith now in money and power for her daughter. And Hal had made no indication that his feelings for Nell went beyond mere lust. He certainly had not offered to marry her! Even if he did, she did not know who he truly was. Noble, certainly, but for all she could say he might be a younger son, or from a family as down on their luck as her own.

She could not look to Hal to save her. She had to save herself. Unless...

Slowly, an idea began to slither its way into Nell's brain. It was unthinkable. It was outrageous. It was scandalous... It just might be her best way out. 

As the moon rose and the noise in the cottage quieted, Nell eased her door open, careful not to make a sound. Using all the skills she had honed in her years learning to hunt, she noiselessly made her way down the stairs. When she got to his door, she almost lost her nerve. Could she really be so bold? So shameless?

Pulling together all of her courage, Nell opened the door and slid into the room. The light from the almost full moon streamed through the open window, lighting the room with a pale glow. Lying in the beam, Hal look almost otherworldly in his beauty. His eyes went wide as he saw her, and he pushed himself up on his good arm.

"My dearest Nell, they said you were not well," he said, voice a whisper in the night. "What happened to you earlier today? And what doth bring you to my room so late?"

He looked unusually tense as he stared at her, eyes shuttered more than was their want. But perhaps, she thought, she was just projecting her own fears onto him. Swallowing to relieve the dryness in her mouth, she opened the robe that wrapped around her and let it fall to the ground, standing in just her white night dress, trembling slightly.

"I needed time to think, forgive me, sir," she told him, trying to keep her voice steady as she looked at him. 

"Think of what dear heart? What means all this?" he asked, licking his lips absently as his eyes raked over her in her thin chemise.

"Just this, my lord: I wondered if you might consent this night to take me to your bed?"

The words were spoken, and she could not take them back. She could not decide whether she wished to or not. Hal's pupils were huge, making his normally pale blue eyes look black in the moon light. As she finished speaking he made a sound half way between a gasp and a moan, and she noticed a movement beneath the bedsheet that covered the lower half of his body.

"My love, do you know what it is you ask?" he said, obviously keep a tight control over himself. "I would not dare besmirch so rare a flower."

Nell took two small steps closer to the bed so that she was near enough that she could touch him were she brave enough. 

"I do," she said, voice little more than a whisper. "for I have thought the matter out. I want you to make love to me tonight."

"Oh god above, you tempt me to my core," he groaned, running his good hand through his hair. "For I do want for nothing more than that. Yet have I sworn to myself just today that I would be the gentleman with you."

"I find, good Hal, I much prefer the cad," she said, wetting her lips. "Could we not coax him out from where he hides?"

Hal's hand made as though to touch her, but pulled back at the last minute. Why was he being so restrained, she wondered? He had from the start let her know he hoped to bed her. Just that morning he had almost kissed her. She could see the way he was tenting the sheet. Why was he holding back now? Was it all just a game, a pose to him?

"You do not find me to your liking then?" she asked in a small voice. "Forgive me sir, for so disturbing you."

"Oh sweet Jesu, not like you? Are you mad?" he asked, voice rough. "If I did like you any more I'd die! Sweet Nell, my heart, the things you make me feel!"

"What things my lord?" she asked, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I do desire to know."

"Things that a well bred virgin cannot know," he groaned, swaying a bit towards her. "And yet, were I to have all to my will, that would not stand a barrier for long."

"Then do your will, for it is also mine," she urged, and with a bravery she didn't know she possessed, took his hand and brought it up to cup her cheek. "And with the rest of me surrendered to you."

"How can a man resist that offer made? I am no saint to turn down such a gift."

And with that, he was kissing her, and she forgot her insecurity, her anger at her situation, and every other last thing in the passion and heady desire brought about by Hal's kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do you think? Will Hal succumb? Should he? How will her plan play out?


	6. A Visitor At Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hal knows Nell's true identity. Which side of him will win out - the chivalrous prince, or the cad?

Hal was simultaneously relieved and annoyed when Nell chose to cancel their outing at the last moment. He had made the effort, at no small amount of pain to himself, to rise and dress. The least she could do was meet him, especially considering it had been she who had suggested the excursion in the first place. 

On the other hand, his head was reeling from the knowledge of her true identity. Some time to decide how he was to handle such a revelation was definitely required. 

He had been so close. So close to slaking his steadily building thirst for her. He had been around enough women, he knew the signs. Granted, she had shown more resistance than any he had perused before, and there were times when he had despaired of ever wearing down her defenses. But that morning he had sensed it. Something within her had shifted. She may still be accustoming herself to the idea, but Nell’s walls were crumbling. Her lips at least, and hopefully a good deal more of her, would be his by midday. 

Now though, what was he to do? He wanted her. Wanted her with a hunger he had never felt before. In his mind even now as he went over and over all the reasons he should stay away, he was imagining it. Nell lying on the bed, eyes wide and lust blown, her hair fanned out across the pillow. The way she would feel as he covered her body with his own. How her long, shapely legs would rise to wrap around him as he slid slowly into that part of her that remained untouched, waiting just for him, all this time.

God, he was achingly hard at the very thought of such bliss. He wanted to lose himself in her. To claim her as his and mark her with his cum, inside and out. To make her fall apart around him as she screamed his name over and over again.

She did not even know his name, he realized. Not his true one. She thought him some wandering lord, noble no doubt, but hardly royal. Would it make a difference if she learned his identity? Had it made a difference to him learning hers?

Princes did not dally with women like her, he thought. They married them or they left them alone. But then, his brain suggested subversively, there were no other women like Nell. Born to a high station, but rendered impoverished through no fault of her own. Blessed with excellent lineage, yet unpretentious and full of life. Smart, beautiful, independent women of passion who flouted convention and spoke their minds did not make up the world where Hal was supposed to find his mate.

He should leave, he decided by nightfall. He had proven today that he was fit to rise. He had also checked on Strumpet and found that his horse had been excellently tended to by Nell and her people. He would thank her for her hospitality and be on his way.

He might, he added to himself, just _might_ allow himself to kiss her farewell. Just a small taste of the banquet he was foregoing would surely be an acceptable compensation for his gallantry in leaving her chastity intact. After all, her lips were screaming to be kissed hard and long. 

It was about this image that he was fantasizing, uninjured hand stroking his cock, when he sensed more than heard the door to his room slowly open. Instantly alert and planning out how to quickly access his sword and knife from the table across the room, Hal lifted himself on one arm and peered toward the door into the dim room.

The darkened silhouette stepped closer to the light from the window giving a soft, dim glow to the room and his breath caught. Nell stood there, dressed in a robe held tightly about her. Her hair was tied neatly back with a ribbon, allowing him to see her wide eyes as they nervously glanced to him and away. What the devil was she doing in his room at this hour, he wondered as his heart beat quickened.

"My dearest Nell, they said you were not well," he said, trying to keep his voice steady and low. "What happened to you earlier today? And what doth bring you to my room so late?" 

As he lay there staring at her, Nell uncrossed her arms and the robe slid down off of her delicate shoulders. Underneath she was clad in a thin, white chemise that skimmed down her body. She had been in bed, he thought, remembering his earlier vision of her lying beneath him. God help him, but felt his cock throb beneath the sheet that draped over his lower body.

"I needed time to think, forgive me, sir," she told him, visibly nervous even in the dim light.

Was something wrong, he wondered? Had her mother seen him after all, despite his attempt to escape unnoticed? If Elouise had informed Nell of his true nature, would she be angry? Hurt at not being told the truth? In awe of his exalted station? Surely not the last, his Nell was not the type to swoon for a title, he was certain of it, and she did not seem angry... Was something else distressing his lady?

"Think of what dear heart? What means all this?" he asked, unable to keep his eyes from straying to where her hardened nipples pushed against the flimsy material of her night dress. He could just make out the shading of darkness of areolae, causing his mouth to go dry as he thought of sucking them in. Gods, but she was temptation made flesh! 

"Just this, my lord," She said in a small voice, "I wondered if you might consent this night to take me to your bed?"

The pounding of blood in his ear was deafening. Was she offering what he thought she was? Had he fallen asleep, or been somehow granted a wish made only in his mind? Hal babbled some sort of request for clarification at her, not sure what he was saying as she timidly crossed the room, bringing her invitation with her. Surely he had mistook her meaning. No man was meant to be that fortunate.

"I do," she said, "for I have thought the matter out. I want you to make love to me tonight."

He gasped as spoke the words, stating clearly her desire for what he had longed to do since first clapping eyes on her. He had thought her possibly ready to be receptive to seduction, but never in his wildest dreams had he thought she would be the one to broach the subject. She was a properly, more or less, raised Lady.

Damnation, but that thought brought back her birth. She was beyond his touch, he had decided. A kiss, perhaps, but nothing more of her would he steal. Why were the fates testing him in this way? Hercules' labors were nothing compared to the strength it took for him, as he looked at her nervous but willing beauty, and tried, haltingly, to explain that he did not want to sully her.

"You do not find me to your liking then Forgive me sir, for so disturbing you."

The pain in her voice as she said that undid him. Hal reached out a hand as though to stop her, unable to let her think such a thing.

"Oh sweet Jesu, not like you? Are you mad?" he asked, voice rough. "If I did like you any more I'd die! Sweet Nell, my heart, the things you make me feel!"

"What things my lord?" she asked, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I do desire to know."

"Things that a well bred virgin cannot know," he groaned, thinking of how deeply he wanted to sink into her, to breach her maidenhead and make her his indeed. "And yet, were I to have all to my will, that would not stand a barrier for long."

"Then do your will, for it is also mine, and with the rest of me surrendered to you" she said, eyes huge as she stared into his.

To his ruin she reached out and claimed his hand, bringing it up to touch her face. Her skin was so hot and soft as she nestled into his touch. He was only human, he thought. The most desirable woman he had ever met was sitting on his bed, scantily clad, and clearly offering herself up to him. It was madness to deny her, damn the consequences.

"How can a man resist that offer made? I am no saint to turn down such a gift."

Threading his fingers in her hair, Hal brought his lips to hers in a moment long imagined. She was sweet and inexperienced, just as he had suspected, but Hal was an excellent teacher. As he slid his slightly parted lips along hers, he felt her melt into the embrace. His tongue softly grazed over the seam of her mouth, and it opened hesitantly for him. That was all the invitation Hal needed to lap gently into her mouth, tasting her. Her own tongue moved slightly in reply, learning from his example, and soon they were exploring each other freely.

"Oh god, my Nell, you are more sweet than wine," he groaned, pull back from her mouth to look at her desire glazed face. "I am unworthy of so great a gift, but swear to bring you pleasure here tonight."

"I do not doubt it, though I be a maid," she told him, biting her lip endearingly. "You should know, Hal, I've not done this before."

"I know my love, and gentle I will be," he promised, drawing her further onto the bed and cursing his wounded arm that he had not his usual flexibility and strength. "Now lie you down and let me tend to you."

She dutifully followed his instructions, lying on her back and letting her arms fall to her sides. She was so innocent, yet at the same time so willing, it took Hal's breath away. Smiling at her blush, he let his eyes wander down her body slowly, appreciating every last rise and fall of her shape. His hands soon followed his eyes, and he groaned as he took her breast in his hand, rolling her nipple through the fabric of her gown. The noise she made, a gasping coo, made him throb, and he pressed his engorged member against her leg through the bed sheet, rocking his hips so that he rubbed against her.

"So beautiful, and all for me alone," he grinned, running his hands lower as he leaned down to kiss her neck. He had to remind himself not to suck too hard, lest he mar her fair skin, but it was difficult with the encouraging sounds she was making, and the way her hips moved, seemingly of their own accord, as he worked. "You are indeed a goddess, made for love."

As his mouth worked downward, Hal's hand found the hem of her dress and he began to slide it upwards, skimming along her silken thighs as he did so. When he reached her waist, he raised an eyebrow at her in question. He would die, he decided, if she said no, but he wanted to give her this final chance to stop what they were doing. When Nell swallowed and gave a quick nod of her head, a grin spread across Hal's face and he pulled the night dress up and over her head.

She was even more perfect than he had dared imagine. From the clear skin of her breasts to the patch of curls hiding her sex, she was the picture of womanly beauty. Luxuriating in the feel, Hal ran his palm down one side of her body, making her shiver when he reached the section just below her navel. Kissing her again deeply, he slid his hand to the top of her thigh, and then gently applied pressure until her legs parted slightly.

"That's it, my love, it will all be alright," he soothed her, raining kisses down on her face and neck.

Carefully, so as not to frighten her, Hal stroked one finger along her slit, moaning in pleasure as he felt how wet she was. Nell's arm came tentatively up and she ran her fingers through his hair, making him shudder like a maid with the naïve eroticism of it. As he continued to kiss her, he pressed his finger deeper into her folds, making her buck slightly into his hand as she pulled on his hair.

"Oh god, I never knew it could be so," she whispered, kissing him back as he began to gently stroke over her clit with his thumb.

"You are so sensitive, my darling Nell," he praised her in her ear. "So wet and so responsive to my hand." 

Hal gave her a rakish grin and lowered himself down, kissing and sucking as he went, until he lay with his head between her legs. Nell instinctively tried to close her thighs, but Hal held them open, reveling in the glistening proof of her desire for him.

"What are you doing? Hal, you can not mean -"

"Just hush, sweet Nell, and let me go to work," he grinned at her, licking his lips. "Now just relax and let me show you bliss."

Hal's hand pressed her back into the mattress, and then drifted lower to cover her mound. Pausing only to inhale her heavenly scent, he licked a long stripe up her cunt to her clit. Nell let out a scandalized yelp, causing him to chuckle evilly.

"You must be quiet now, my darling girl," he reminded her, "lest you wake the house with your loud cries."

Delighting in her whimpers, Hal returned his attention to Nell's pussy, licking, sucking, and fingering her with expert skill. Unable to stifle her cries, she grabbed a nearby pillow and held it over her mouth, muffling the screams of pleasure he was causing. Distantly, Hal longed for the day when she would be free to make as much noise as she pleased, that he might hear his name sing from her lips in a full throated scream. For now though, it was enough when her hand returned to his hair, clenching it in her little fist and pulling as she finally came undone for him.

"Now that's a taste I'll never have enough," he said smugly, licking her release from his lips as he crawled back up the bed.

"I did not know that I could feel that way," Nell panted, eyes glazed over as she played with his hair. 

"There is so much that you do not know yet," he told her, kissing her with hunger. 

"Then show me it, my Hal, and let me learn," she said back, blinking at him.

God, he wanted to. He wanted to teach her everything he knew about the art of love. She had felt so tight around his fingers, he could only imagine how she would clench around his cock. As she lay there, all panting and willing, he longed to thrust into her. She was wet enough now, ready to take him if he went slowly. Her eyes as she looked up at him were so trusting and heavy with desire.

He could not do it. He could not ruin her, taking away the most valuable asset she possessed. Any man worthy of her would demand a virgin bride. If he took that virginity now, he would be depriving her of a respectable marriage.

Closing his eyes for a moment in something close to pain, Hal made his decision.

"Here my love," he said tenderly, "Give unto me your hand."

Without hesitation, Nell reached her hand out to him. Hal took it and guided it to his cock, straining and almost purple with need. Nell flinched for a moment at the first contact, then shyly let her hand encircle him, drawing out a groan as he struggled for control. Covering her hand with his, Hal began moving it up and down along his shaft, shuddering with the feel. As she became more confident, he let his hand slip away to fondle her breasts, moving his hips in time with hand as she tested things like swiping her thumb over the head where the precum pearled.

It took embarrassingly little time. When her other hand came down to gently feel his balls as she pumped him, Hal stifled a cry and brought his hand once more atop hers, guiding her as he spilled his seed onto her soft body, creating a trail from her breasts to her navel, where it pooled.

"Oh God above, you quite undo me, Nell," he groaned, pulling her to him for a bruising kiss.

When he finally let her up for air, it was to flop down beside her and pull her gently to his side. It was true, she had him quite beside himself. On the one hand, just feeling her body, tasting her, bringing her to orgasm, and feeling her hand around his cock had been better than anything else he could remember. On the other, however, he knew that as good as that had been it was a mere shadow on what they could have shared. How he had had the self restraint to leave her a virgin still he would never know.

"Forgive me, Hal, but should there not be more?" her voice asked hesitantly from where she snuggled beside him.

"More, my greedy love? Are you not sated?" he asked, feeling his pride pricked a bit.

"It was most pleasurable, I'll not deny," she said shyly. "But should we not have joined ere we were done?"

She was going to be the death of him. It was certain.

"It is most often done that way, my sweet," he admitted. "But I know that you are still a maid, and chastity is coinage in this world. We gave each other pleasure here tonight, but when the time does come for you to wed, there will be no bar to stand in your way."

Shocking him, Nell rose up to sitting, pulling away from him, eyes glowing with fire.

"That cannot be, it mars my purpose quite!" she snapped, glaring at him. "Now I insist that you complete the task, and take from me my hated maidenhead! You must! Please Hal, I beg of you be kind. It is the only way to save myself!"

And to his complete horror, his beautiful, strong, courageous Nell began to weep.


	7. Fallout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nell deals with the ramifications of her daring actions. Can Hal calm the panic she is experiencing? And will she trust him enough to tell him her reasons?

How had her life ever come to this, Nell wondered as she uselessly tried to dash the tears from her overflowing eyes with the back of her hand. She _did not cry_ in front of other people. _Ever_. Even when Audax, her beloved horse and closest companion, had been taken from her after her father's fall she had held her chin high, eyes dry and gaze icy as the visibly uncomfortable grooms led the majestic beast away. It had not been until the door to her room closed behind her that she had allowed herself to fall to her bed, weeping for all of the adventures she had planned for them that they would now never get to take.

Yet here she was. All of her prized composure had been stripped from her and she was weeping like any other silly noble girl because the world was not to her liking. The display of weakness was unbearable, and she would not blame Hal if he loathed her after witnessing it. And still, she could not stop.

"My love, my darling Nell what means these tears?" Hal's voice broke through her sobs. "If I have hurt you in my passion, God! I never shall forgive myself the crime!"

"Tis nothing, Sir, ignore my ill timed tears," she said between gasps, trying wrest back some semblance of control. Oh lord in heaven, now he thought he had injured her? What a pathetic creature he must think her!

"I'm sorry such advantage did I take," Hal told her, hand caressing her back. "I swear I meant no harm or disrespect!"

"Advantage?" she choked out with a bitter laugh. "Hal I hurled myself at you! And for my part, I would you had not stopped! For 'tis the only way to stop my fate."

"What fate is that? I fear I'm all at sea! Please, dearest heart, just tell me how to help."

"I told you, sir, and yet you did it not," she mumbled in reply, unable to bring herself to ask again for her own deflowering.

"I do not understand you, yet I vow," Hal said in a deep voice that made her stomach flutter despite her tears and self-disgust, "that if in any way I may assist, that you have but to speak and it is done."

As Hal continued to run a soothing hand up and down her back, Nell struggled to tie herself back together. She would face this challenge as she had everything else in her life.

"Forgive me, Hal, for my unseemly show," she said at last, sobs abating to an occasional gasp. She needed to escape while he still had some regard left for her. "I will be gone and trouble you no more."

"Nay, tarry love, you cannot leave me thus," he insisted, grabbing her wrist and keeping her from leaving the bed. "Tell me what troubles you, and let me help."

Very well, she could do this, Nell thought. She had already abandoned any sense of dignity or pride. Most likely after turning into a watering pot in his bed tonight she would never see Hal again, a thought that brought a shocking wave of despair. 

Putting her thoughts in order as best she could, Nell reflected back over the night thus far. She had offered everything to Hal - her body, her chastity, her reputation. He had seemed to desire her. She had been sure, in fact, that his plan was to seduce her to his bed and claim it all before her audacious offer. Why then had he stopped before consummating the affair? She must, she realized with a sinking in her stomach, have disappointed him.

"I am sorry, sir, if I did fail to please," she told him, unable to meet his eyes. She had always hated not being adept at things, and for her to lack at _this_ was just the ultimate humiliation. "Could you, perchance, explain what I did wrong?"

"Fail to please? Now how could you think so?" Hal's voice skittered upward. "The pearly evidence doth streak your skin, displaying clear the pleasure you produced!"

Nell looked down at the trails of sticky white slowly drying on her chest. He _had_ seemed rather to be enjoying himself when he had shot the warm ropes onto her body. His cry had been quite similar to the one she had let out when he made her see stars. Had that been what he was feeling? Or, at least, the male equivalent? Was it possible that she had preformed adequately after all?

"You did it all just right, believe me Nell," he told her, kissing the palm of her hand. "Now, wherefore all these tears, and all this doubt."

God, she wanted to believe him. Looking at him now naked beside her, her desire was already welling up inside her again, not just for what he had done to her but for what she sensed was left to do. As much as she might claim that her disappointment that he had spared her virginity had all been because she could not use her soiled state as an excuse to cancel her betrothal, she had to admit that equally upsetting was the thought that he might not feel the same intensity of desire for her that she felt for him. What if the chase had been all, and winning her had been less than anticipated?

"I have been told that men, when they are roused," she said haltingly, feigning a bravado she did not feel, "are driven then to consummate that urge. And yet, you left me still a maid, unmarred."

"God knows, it was not for a lack of want," Hal said with a laugh. "I did surprise myself, if truth be told. For Nell, hear and believe what I now say, in all my life I never wanted more to lie with any woman, high or low, than I do want to claim you as my own. But Nell, if I do take your maidenhood, then how will you explain when you are wed? Your husband will expect you are untouched, and if it proves not so then he will rage. I would spare you sweet, from any harm. The thought of any creature hurting you doth make my blood to boil with killing rage. If should come about through fault of mine, I doubt that I could live with such a thing."

Nell stared at him, trying to detect any falsehood in his clear blue eyes and finding none. Could it be his motives were so altruistic? The evidence di seem to suggest that he was not indifferent to her charms. Even now, as he spoke soothing words of protecting her, his hand had strayed from her back to caress he breast, deft fingers playing with her nipple absently. That marvelous, frighteningly large cock that she had held in her hand not long ago was standing back at attention, bobbing every so often as one of them shifted on the bed. If it were only this man she had been so summarily pledged to, she thought, she could go to the altar willingly and joyfully.

"You do assume all maidens long to wed," she said wryly, trying to focus. "It is not always so, believe me Hal."

"But what else lies before you, good my sweet?" he asked. "You of all maids should never be a nun, hid inside some dingy convent walls. And with your lineage you can expect to have your pick of any man to wed."

"My lineage? What knoweth you of that?" Nell asked, suddenly still.

He knew, she realized. She had seen him, that afternoon. When her talk with her mother had come to its abrupt end, she had noticed Hal slinking out of the room. He had not been close enough to hear what they said, but he could easily have seen them clearly. Of course. 

"I know, my dear, in who's house I am lodged," he said at last.

"You know my mother then," she nodded, thoughts confirmed. "I should have guessed. If one had once seen Elouise D'Amboise, one could never fail to recognize her."

"The Lady is not easy to forget," he nodded. "To say I knew her would be quite the stretch, but I have seen her and been introduced, though t'was so long ago she'd know me not. I was but a young squire at that time."

"Well, that explains the more why you did stop," Nell said with a flash of bitterness and envy. "When it came clear that you had now the chance to woo and win, if only for a time, the famous beauty Elouise D'Amboise, why would you be contented then with me? I know I am no beauty of her count, to drive men mad with lust from just one look."

No sooner had the wretched words left her than Hal suddenly spun to her, grabbing her hard by her arm and forcing her to look at him.

"Think you so, you foolish idiot?" Hal asked, anger in his voice giving it the crack of command. "For one so bright you can be rather dim. Now hear me, for I tire of repeating: In all my days as an avouched rake, and trust me, I am second there to none, not once have I been hit so with desire, as like to make a man run mad with want, as when my eyes did clap their sight on you. Now, tell me whence the source of all this springs. You have led me a merry dance tonight, and I would know what mischief calls the tune."

Nell looked at him, the concern, anger, and yes lust, mingling in his eyes as he held her still, and felt the horridness of her accusation wash over her. He, of all people, did not deserve to be the receptacle of her anger at herself. He had never done anything to warrant such an accusation as she had just made. In point of fact, he had acted to shield her, from both herself and future pain that might result from her rash actions. 

She could trust him, she suddenly thought. She did not know why, and heavens knew there were reasons she shouldn't, but she was sure she was right.

"My mother is compelling me to wed," she said baldly. "That would be bad enough, though no surprise. What I will not accept though is her choice. A man who, if he has not been before, which I am in no manner certain of, will surely soon become her paramour. She means to use our marriage as a blind, that she may live with him in tawdry sin, and the world think no ill of it all."

Hal stared at her, opened mouthed with horror. And well he might, she thought. Speaking the words aloud had revived the disgust she felt at the situation. How must it look to an outsider? Careful to keep her breathing steady lest she begin sobbing again, Nell returned his gaze with frank despair.

"How could such a creature as she is, that would conspire to such a monstrous act, have birthed so fair and bright a thing as you?" he asked, eyes glistening. "And this is why you came to me tonight?"

"I hoped if I no longer was a maid, he would not then consent to make me wife," she admitted, lowering her gaze.

"Ah, Nell, it is then me who is a fool," he said softly, hand sliding through her hair. "For I had hoped you felt the same as I. You came to me not out of love or lust, but as a means to free yourself from them."

"Could it not be for both?" she found herself saying in a small, timid voice. "For while 'tis true that I did seek a method of escape, before I met you never would such plan have ever even crossed my mind to try. Nor would I now have courage or desire to put the forth request another time."

Hal's pupils went wide as he took in the meaning of her she words. Encouraged by that reaction, Nell stretched forth her fingers and ran them down the hard muscles of his chest. She had done so before, many times, but while she had felt a clandestine joy at the feel of him each time she checked his wounds, there was a newfound intimacy to the stroke of hand now. The way he sharply inhaled as her fingers ghosted over his navel, stopping just shy of the purpling head of his cock gave her a feeling of power made her almost giddy.

"Who is the man that they mean you to wed?" he asked in a rough, husky voice, leaning towards her ever so slightly.

She saw no reason to lie to him. If he was not to help her, the truth would come out soon enough. If he did agree to her request, on the other hand, he had the right to know how powerful was the enemy he would be making.

"Percy, The Earl of Northumberland," she said at last.

Hal's eyes flashed with fire and the muscle in his jaw clenched. Nell had a sudden intuition that she would not want to be the one to cause such a look in him, although at the same time witnessing it filled her with a nameless want.

"That varlet Henry Percy have my Nell?" he said, as though to himself. "The new made Earl, you say, and not his son? Not that young Hotspur, as he would be called, would be more fit to taste such precious fruit, but by my faith, at least he be not old! Sure you are that she did name the Earl?"

"I think I would in such case not mistake," Nell said with a hard look at him. "Know you then the Lord Northumberland?"

"I know him, aye, and damned I will be," Hal told her in a voice of iron, "before I suffer so much as even one of his fat fingers to caress your skin. For you to go to such a one as he were crime beyond ability to name. And that he seeks you not for your sweet self, but adds salt to the wound. It shall not be!"

"And how mean you to stop it, good my lord?" Nell asked in a soft voice, made giddy by his show of anger.

The grin Hal gave her as his eyes swung back to her was enough to take what little breath she had left in her body. An avouched rake, he had named himself. At that moment, Nell could well see that he was, and a successful one at that, for even had her future not depended on it she would have given him anything and all he wanted for that smile.

"Why easily, my sweet, so fear you not. But first, before I thwart the loathed Earl, I think we have some further business here. Tell me, my dove, and do not think to lie. If I could save you from this hated fate, and you need not to suffer my embrace, would you then flee at once from this my room, or stay here and await what I would do?"

Was he privy to her thoughts that he had so guessed their direction? Taking a steadying breath, Nell met his gaze and smiled slowly.

"I have no wish to flee this room or you," she said bravely. "Do with me what you will, for I am thine."

"Well said, and true, my sweet, for so you art," his smile grew even more lecherous with the words, "a choice, I swear, you never shall regret."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a difficult chapter to write, and I actually redid the whole thing because I felt that Nell was coming off as too weak in the first draft. I hope it is clear that she is in a very fraught position, and therefore acting unlike herself. Yet even with everything going on, she is still the mistress of her own fate.


	8. A Consummations Devoutly to be Wished

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sex, sex, sex!

"Do with me what you will, for I am thine."

Had sweeter words than those ever been spoken? If so, then Hal had not heard of them. As he looked down on the beautiful woman naked on his bed, a surge of desire spread through him like to nothing had ever known.

"Well said, and true, my sweet, for so you art, a choice, I swear, you never shall regret," he promised her.

With hands almost trembling in need Hal reached down, not to claim her lovely breasts, or even the divine apex of her legs where he planned to spend much time, but rather to untie the ribbon holding back the glory of her hair. As she lifted her head to grant him ease of access, he buried his hand in thick tresses, loosening them to fan across his pillow.

"No greater call is there to men's desire, or so the poets would have us believe, than to behold his love's hair all unbound," he told her, twining a curl around his finger. 

"And do you find it so that they speak truth?" she ask rather breathlessly.

"I'faith, my love I do, an it be yours. For I have longed since we two first did meet to see you so laid out before my eyes, clothed but in the rich fall of your bright hair. And now that my hearts wish has been fulfilled, it doth surpass all my imaginings."

A slow, shy smile spread across Rose's face, adding to her incandescent beauty. It was true, he thought. When she had first ventured into his room tonight she had been lovely, sweet, and intensely covetable. She had also been visibly nervous, tension in every line of her body, including her neatly tied hair. Now though... now that she had shared her fear, and learned that he knew the rest of her secret, her name and lineage, that tension had eased. Gone were the stiffness in her shoulders and the frightened doe look that had haunted her eyes, and in their place were the look and form of a woman, still innocent, yes, but eager, tinged with a hint of the wildness he loved about her.

"Would you not care to touch me, darling Nell?" he asked, raising an eyebrow in challenge.

Nell's cheeks blushed, but her chin rose a fraction. Biting her lip, she moved both of her hands so that her palms rested flat on his chest. Hal groaned at the contact, the small twinge of pain from his healing wounds only adding to the sweetness of her touch by contrast. Slowly, as though committing him to memory, Nell began to slide her hands along his torso, finger tips massaging into his flesh to explore the shape and feel of his muscles. 

"I never knew man could possess such beauty," she murmured shyly.

"Tis glad I am that you do think me so," he smiled at her as her hands skimmed around to caress his back, "though being as you are beauty's own self, I know I must stand humbled before you."

When her hand dipped down to cup and gently squeeze his ass Hal could take it no longer and moved in to kiss her greedily. Nell returned the kiss back, a quick study as he had predicted. Now that she had surrendered in thought as well as act to their coupling, it seemed that nothing was to be held back, and Hal groaned into the kiss as her tongue invaded his mouth.

Finally disentangling from her giving mouth, he moved lower to lick at her pebbled nipple, earning a high pitched gasp for his labor. With a grin he pulled more of her breast into his mouth, sucking hard on it until she moaned and arched her back, nails digging into his skin. By the time he had showered attention on the second of her lovely breasts, her hips were rising and falling in mindless rhythm, aware even if she were not of what was to come.

Wanting to make sure that she was ready for him, Hal brought his hand down and thrilled as she opened her legs for him with out any urging on his part. One swipe of his fingers was enough to show him that she was more than aroused, as her slick was well nigh dripping onto the sheets beneath her. Still, he knew it was to be her first time, and he did not want to hurt her unduly, so he slid two of his long fingers inside her, swallowing her cry with his lips. He worked in and out of her, moving his digits as he did to prepare her for his girth. When she began all but riding his hand, he knew neither of them could wait any longer.

"I fear that pain is unavoidable," he warned her, settling himself between her cradling thighs, "but once the first sharp pang has passed away I shall do all I can to bring you bliss."

With that, he slowly began to rock forward, feeling her tight muscles dilate begrudgingly to let him in. She was so tight around his cock he was suddenly glad that they had begun with pleasuring each other manually. As eager as he had been for release then, frustrated with a weeks worth of unfulfilled want, he would not have had the control to hold off his release when given such a snug welcome. As it was, it took every ounce of will power to ease slowly into her rather than take her hard and fast the way his body screamed to do.

When he reached her final barrier, that thin wall of flesh that proclaimed her a maid untouched, Hal sought Nell's eyes with a question in his own. With a wide, glassy look, she nodded once, hands clenching his shoulders desperately. He was desperately glad, as he did not know whether or not he would have been able to stop himself as he was now, half seated within her. Keeping his eyes locked on hers, praying her pain was not to great, Hal thrust forward and felt her give way to him, burying himself to the hilt.

"Oh, God, I swear I ner' knew bliss till now," he groaned, as she spasmed around him. "My dearest Nell, tell me you are alright."

"A moment, Hal, and I will be I think," she managed, breath coming in rapid gulps as her body came to grips with the intrusion.

With stony will Hal kept his lower half still, but could not resist kissing her - her mouth, her neck, anything he could reach in an attempt to show her how much he was reveling in the feeling of her wrapped around him. When her grip on his shoulders loosened to slide one hand into his hair, tugging a bit as her hips moved, he knew she was ready.

Hal tried to go slow at first, wanting to draw out her pleasure as well as his own, but as Nell's slickness grew he found himself unable to resist pounding into her, only just muffling his grunts and moans as he did. Her own breath was littered with cries that she sought to burry in his shoulder as he drove her harder and faster, mouth licking and sucking on all of her beautifully exposed flesh. He felt her nails rake down his back and laughed with joy as her legs came up to wrap around him, ankles crossed.

"That's it, my fiery Nell, let go my sweet," he urged her in her ear. "I long to feel you come upon my cock."

She was holding on for dear life again, one hand in his hair and the other on his shoulder. Hal rose up, that he might see the look on her face, that moment when she came undone beneath him. It was glorious, her face contorted in a silent cry, eyes closed and graceful neck arched in agonizing pleasure. Seeing her so far gone was all that he could take, and with a final series of sloppy thrusts he sunk once more to his balls in her and released deep inside.

He stayed within her as long as he could, murmuring sweet nothings and stroking her hair. It was not usually like this. Normally when he bedded a woman he could not wait to be gone. Gone from her body, from her room, and from her life. But now... now he wanted to stay forever. Was it because she had been a virgin, he wondered? It was possible, but somehow he didn't think so.

Whatever the cause, Hal decided at that moment that he would be damned if any of the Percys, father or son, laid so much as a glove upon her. She was far too rare and special for either of them to touch. For anyone else to touch, his brain added possessively before he could stop it.

He had promised to end her betrothal. He could, too, and without making her deflowering known to the world. It was one of the advantages of being the heir apparent, he had a certain sway over affairs in England. There was only one problem with his plan. She would learn who he was.

She was bound to find out anyway, he knew, at least if he ever wanted to see her again. And he damn sure intended to see her. All of her, and often. But how would she take the revelation? 

The time to tell her, of course, had been when she had confessed her own identity. She had made herself vulnerable to him, he should have done the same, tearing down his walls. The worst part was that it was pure vanity that held him back. All of his adult life he had wondered how much of his appeal to women was his title. Not all of it, he knew he was charming and not without looks, but surely some of his success could be credited to his rank. Nell though, Nell wanted him as a man, not a prince. For all she knew he was a penniless second son, forced to seek his own fortune, but she had still valued him enough to offer her most valuable possession, her honor, into his keeping.

"I swear to you you'll not regret this night," he promised her, kissing her forehead. "I shall make it right for you, my Nell. Both with your marriage and what e'er else I may."

"My Hal, I do in this moment believe that you could fix the moon if you so chose," she smiled at him, fingers tracing his arm. "For surely you have magic in your blood."

"Not magic, Nell, but perchance something more. Now hush, dear heart, and sleep a little while. Too soon the house will stir and you must leave. But while the dark doth still obscure the sky, I'd have you lie with me here in my arms, that I might know what 'tis to taste of heaven."

"But if we sleep might not we be discovered?" she fretted, trying to push herself up only to be stopped by his steel grip.

"Not so, for I shall shun close my eyes, the more that I might watch you while you sleep," he promised her. "And while I keep my vigil over you, I'll put the final touches on my plan to keep you safe from those you would avoid. For while there is a breath within me Nell, I’ll suffer no man to have claim on you. Unless your own heart doth desire the match."

If the last part of his vow was offered grudgingly and with bitter sting, Hal chose to ignored it. Of course it was only natural that he should feel possessive over her given what they had just shared. It would no doubt fade in time, and he would be genuinely happy for her should she make a good marriage. 

But if that were true, why was his hand clenched in a fist and his heart drumming angrily at the thought, the irritating voice in his head demanded? Kissing her again, Hal had no answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There it is, the deed is done! If you will excuse me now, I think I need a cold shower. :)


	9. Afterglow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nell is the heady afterglow of passion. How long can her bliss last before reality intrudes?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so tickled by the positive response to this fic! Whenever I write something non Loki I always wonder if anyone will read it, so it makes me beyond happy that you all have taken the time to give it a try! Thank you!!

_Careful that her soft boots made no sound, Nell stalked the beast through the woods, bow in hand. She had nearly spoiled it all by letting out a shriek when she first caught sight of the hart, but had managed to hold her tongue just in time so as not to alert it to her presence. As loath as she was to kill so majestic an animal, it would feed her household well, and she had a duty to those who depended on her._

_There it was, just in the glade ahead. She could spy its tawny coat through the green leaves now. Barely daring to breath, she inched closer until she could make her way around the large oak for a clear shot. Arrow going to her string she stepped forward..._

_And was horrified to see not hart she had believed it to be, but instead a mammoth, golden lion. The beast was so large it dwarfed the small woodland clearing. Bright eyes stared at her for a moment from beneath his heavy mane, and then it was moving towards her. No time to run, Nell let the bow and arrow fall useless to the ground as the beast reared up to place his giant paws on her shoulders and tumble her to the ground, his weight heavy atop of her._

"Open up my heart, and let me in," a low voice murmured in her ear. "Oh god, so wet and willing for my cock!"

As the dual sensations of soft kisses on her neck and a hard cock making its way into her still sore passage roused Nell from her odd dream, she let her eyes flutter open. Hal was lying on top of her again, body pressed against hers as he slid in and out of her with aching slowness. It hurt a bit at first, not the sharp pain of earlier, but a dull throb of muscles unused to such intrusion. As he continued his smooth, deep strokes, all the while murmuring words of praise into her ear, her own desire awakened and soon the pain was gone, replace with a desperate need.

Instead of the hard and fast pace of their first time, Hal took her slowly, making her feel every inch of the long cock taking ownership of her body. There was a tenderness in him that surprised her, though she had seen signs of it before. When his hand snaked down to play with that little bundle of nerves of hers that he seemed to understand better than she ever had, she felt the now familiar coil of something unnamable deep within her. How could he make her feel at once so out of control, and yet more at peace in her own body than she had ever been? 

The wave of intense pleasure hit her, and she had no more coherent thoughts for a time. When she could focus again, Hal was panting as he accelerated his pace, clearly nearing his own release. Nell watched as he reared up on his forearm, gorgeous and glistening with sweat, before abruptly pulling out of her and spilling himself on the soft expanse of her tummy. She watched in fascination as the white ran down over her, creating a sticky path as it went. 

"Forgive me love, for I could not resist," he said at last, rolling off of her. 

"I would you were there always so to wake me," she smiled, and then blushed when she realized what she had said.

She would have to be very careful, Nell realized. It was alarming enough that she had put herself so completely into the power of this man, a stranger to her until mere days ago. She must retain some measure for herself or she would crumble when he left, as inevitably he must. Even now, the thought made her chest constrict in pain and her eyes threaten to well once more with tears.

"Such sweetness every morn would be a dream," he smiled back at her. "My only fear is that if you were there, I never more would rise out of my bed. But now I fear, my Nell you must be gone, lest dawn should shine and catch you with me here."

He was right, of course, and once more more careful of her reputation than she was herself. Of course, no sooner had the words escaped his lips than he was holding her fast and kissing her with a fervor that had her glued to the bed. Yet again the thought flew through her scrambled mind that if ever she were betrothed to this man, far from fleeing the altar she would do all in her power to speed the day of the wedding.

"Your kisses have such power over my mind," he groaned, pulling away at last. "What are you, lady to have me so bewitched? Yet if it be a spell which you have weaved, oh never may I of the hex be cured!"

"You flatter, sir, who teach me how to kiss," she laughed shyly.

"Never had a master apter student," he assured her. "But I would not expose you here to shame. And so, my love for now we have to part."

Nell nodded, rising to retrieve her robe where she had dropped it on the floor. Hal's eyes followed her shamelessly, lust clear in the way he looked at her causing her remarkably to feel the stirring of her own so recently sated desire. Who could blame her though, when such a perfect specimen of manhood lay propped up for perusal, proudly displaying himself to her in all his naked glory. Nell licked her lips and saw him grin.

"Soon, my sweet, I'll teach you lessons more, such as a way to use that teasing tongue which even now doth taunt me on your lips."

Nell felt her cheeks flush as she thought out what he must mean. The wicked look in his gaze went straight to the now sadly empty place between her legs, and she realized that this man could more than likely seduce her into doing anything.

"That is, of course, if you wish to return," he suddenly added, uncertain look crossing his quick features. "For I would not presume so much of you. If all you wished was to assure your fate was not to be tied to Northumberland, in case you doubt my plan to set you free, I will perforce be subject to your will, and no more trespass on your honor, Nell."

He was uncertain, she realized. This cocksure model of masculine beauty was unsure of her desire for him! More than that, to go by his looks, he cared! Perhaps, it dawned on her like a thunder cloud, she did have some power in this situation after all!

"I would soak up your lessons, one and all," she assured him, giving him her best sultry smile, "as dry and dusty earth doth soak up rain. I must now, as you say, be gone from here. But if the fates continue us to love, then I will find a way back here tonight."

"I live but on a prayer until that time," he told her, kissing her hand and making her swoon.

"No need for that, friend Hal, I think you know," she smiled, regaining some of her sass as she tiptoed to the door. "For if I were of sudden to begin to shun your company during the day, nothing else that we do would look more strange. And so you need not miss me such long time, but only last an short hours on prayer alone."

"All hours will seem as days till you return," he grinned back at her. "And when I see you while the sun does shine, t'will be my penance for some forgot sin that I be not allowed to touch your skin, or drink form your sweet lips my favorite wine."

"You flatter well, but now farewell, my prince, your maiden fair must go back to her tower and trust you to her dragon slay for her."

For some reason her teasing seemed to cause a shadow to fall over Hal's sunny countenance. Was it because Northumberland, in all his lordly splendor, was dragon indeed for anyone to slay? How Hal thought he might manage to free her from the hated pledge she knew not, but even if he failed she was free. They had lain together, and she was a maid no more. No man of such exalted peerage as the Earl would want to take used goods to his marriage bed. He would have no way of knowing, among other things, if a child he got on hers was truly his. Why, even now Hal's seed might be taking root within her. He had only risked it once, the first time they had coupled, but once could be enough. 

Slipping at last from his room, Nell made her quiet way upstairs to her own room, blessedly meeting no one on her way. She laid in her bed for some time, but found sleep eluded her. Her mind kept returning to the events of the night. She could not stop her mind from recalling how strong Hal had been, even with his wounds still not fully healed. She was used to being the dominating force in most all of her interactions, particularly since her father and brothers had departed. The servants, even Duncan, all deferred to her. Her mother rarely stirred from the past, and when she did Nell could usually divert her in whatever direction she wished. She had had the full running of all since she was nine years old.

Last night, though, Hal had been in charge and it had thrilled her. He had opened up a whole new world of sensual pleasure, and despite telling herself that it was only to escape her arranged marriage that she had followed him into it, Nell secretly knew otherwise. He spoke of her being magic, when he had clearly bewitched her body and soul. 

When at last the sun had risen, she made the rare decision to ring for a servant, finding that she herself was frightfully sore now that the immediate glow had faded somewhat, and had a tub of water brought to her room. There might be some surprise that she had not gone to seek out what was needed herself, but she had been busy since Hal's arrival; it would not seem too remarkable.

Luxuriating in the warm water, Nell spent a lazy space of time washing the remnants of their interlude off of her body. Hal had left a startling number of purpling marks on her pale skin, and she was glad that her she could safely slip on her boys clothing, and that her habit of jaunting about the woods had often led to more bruising than was usual for a well bred lady.

When at last she rose from her bath, she once more took particular care with her appearance, all the while mocking herself for a fool. Hal had seen her with red eyes and a puffy face and still desired her, surely he would not scorn to look at her if she did not arrange her hair just so. And yet, remembering how he had called her loosened hair a call to desire, she decided to leave as much of it down as she dared, just braiding the strands around her face to keep it from hindering her sight.

In happy spirits with the world, Nell ventured out of her room, grimacing good naturedly at how stiffly she was walking. She would have to come up with an excuse to explain the lack of her usual grace, she decided, just in case sharp eyed Duncan noticed. It was a shame she no longer had Audax or she would blame it on a riding accident, she thought with a grin.

"Ah, there you are, just who I thought to seek," the old man said, as if conjured by her thought of him as she walked into the kitchens.

"Good morrow, Duncan, slept you well last night?" she asked, dropping an affection kiss onto his paper like skin.

"That I did, my lady, that I did," he nodded, though she knew he would answer so whatever the truth. "And glad I am to see you in such spirits. Your mother told me of your recent talk, and I had thought you would be boiling mad, afire to find some way out of her plan."

He knew her well, of course, none better. Of course she did not tell him that she need not search for an escape, as she had already ensured it. Instead she shrugged her shoulders and grabbed a slab of bread from where it was toasting over the fire.

"What use is there in fighting what must be?" she asked fatalistically.

"A wise and worthy thought, I'm pleased to say. Your mother, dearest child, knows what is best. She would not give consent to have you wed unless the man were sure to bring you joy."

To bring _her_ joy, more like, Nell thought scornfully. For all his aged wisdom and all his having lived with them for decades, Duncan could never see her mother for what she was. He had been blindly, slavishly devoted to Elouise from the first moment he met her, and Nell was sure that he would be until his death. Even his own wife, while she lived, had come in a distant second. Third, even, as he also doted on Nell herself, though in a different fashion. Such devotion was commendable, of course, but it had the side effect of rendering him blind to any faults Elouise might possess.

"I hope, indeed, to have joy from my marriage," she said simply, failing to mention that Northumberland would not be any part of such union. Unable to resist teasing the old man, knowing just how easy it was to agitate him, she added "and I have heard that if a lucky maid does wed the proper man, than joy indeed might come to her when she goes to his bed."

"To whose bed are you going, dearest Nell?" a low voice asked behind her, making her jump and blush a deep red.

Nell spun to see Hal leaning against the door of the kitchen, wicked grin once more on his handsome face. He was dressed neatly, if not formally, arm in a sling and giving no indication of the sleepless night he had passed.

"Forgive me mistress, I meant not so to start you," he said, not sounding repentant one bit. "I seem to have an appetite this morn, as if I had been riding all the night."

"Come sit and eat, for you must keep your strength!" Duncan urged as Nell fantasized of beating Hal about the head with a pan. "And so to answer up your question, it seems our Nell is destined to become the Lady of Northumberland 'ere long!"

"Northumberland you say? Mean you the Earl?" Hal asked, raising an eyebrow as he sat and let a servant scurry to fetch him a plate.

"Aye, even he, friend Hal, doth seek her hand," Duncan informed him like a proud father. 

"And who could blame him, for no lady born, could hold a candle to our dearest Nell," the hot look he gave her with the words made the hummingbirds dance in Nell's stomach, but she shot him a quelling look nonetheless.

"Well said, well said, I think no less is true," Duncan beamed. "I never hoped, after her father left, to see her placed as high as she deserves. But now, thanks to her mother's loving hand, she shall have all that any maid could want."

"To have her wants met is no little thing," Hal nodded, tucking into his breakfast with gusto. "My lady, be there any little thing that I can do to help in that regard, you only have to name it and 'tis done."

"I thank you, sir, your offer is too kind," she said, kicking him hard under the table. "But I am sure I shall be quite well set."

"And what do you two have planned for today?" Duncan asked, joining them at the table. "I know your plans to hunt were put on hold when word did come unto us yesterday. Perhaps if he feels up to it today young Hal would care to go along with you."

"What say you, sweetest Nell? Like you this plan?" Hal asked her, obviously eager to be alone with her in the woods.

"I see no reason why we should not so," she shrugged, trying to keep the excitement out of her voice. She did not want to seem too easy to the rogue! "Think you, Hal you can keep up with me?"

"Oh set the pace, my mistress, I'll not lag," he assured her, "and perchance t'will be I that outlast you!"

"Ah, to be young again, and innocent!" Duncan sighed, causing both Hall and Nell to choke on their drink.

"I have some chores to do ere we depart," Nell told Hal, ignoring his wink. "An hour hence, meet me before the door and we will see what strength you have indeed."

"It shall be so, though pray you do you not leave me forgotten as your did before. For swear I to you Nell, if you come not, I never shall forgive you for the slight."

"Fear me not, I swear I shall not fail," she assured him.

As Nell rose to go, uncertain which of them had won the ridiculous exchange, a loud pounding was heard coming from the front door. Exchanging a quick look with Duncan, Nell smothered a seed of worry. They never had visitors, for who would there be to pay them call? Could it be Northumberland, she wondered, come eagerly to claim his bride and mistress both? Surely he could not be here this soon. Excusing herself, Nell hurried from the room, not looking to see if anyone followed.

When she entered the main chamber, Maud had opened the door to reveal a small group of extremely well dressed men. Furs and velvets draped their bodies, despite the warmth and rustic surroundings. Coupled with the sneers and general aura of distain she sensed from them, it was enough to make her dislike them on sight.

"Can I help your Lordships? Who be you?" Maud was asking in a voice far from servile, "why make you such a racket at the door?"

"Speak you so to your betters, churlish wench?" one of the men asked angrily. "Why you should be down on your knees to us!"

"My knees be old, and like not to be bent," Maud snapped back. "This is an honest house, so state your names, and what you do require or be gone!"

"It is alright, good madam, Sir, forbear," a young man stepped out of the group, softer looking than the others. "I hear my brother lingers in this house, to heal from wounds he did take in a fall."

"Young Hal is it your worship speaks about?" Maud asked.

"Young Hal? Why yes, some people call him that," the man looked heartily amused, causing the hairs to rise on Nell's neck for some reason.

"You seem to find some humor in the name," she said, coming farther into the room and nodding for Maud to retreat. "What is it then that you do name him, Sir? And while we speak of names what might be yours?"

"Fair maiden, now some things begin to clear," the man turned a smile eerily familiar onto her and gave her a courtly bow. "For myself, I am the Duke of Gloucester. And as for what I call your lucky guest, why brother and His Highness, Prince of Wales."


	10. My Lord the Prince

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hal's reality has arrived with a summons he cannot refuse. What does this mean for him and Nell?

Time seemed to have slowed almost to a halt as Hal watched the proceedings from the shadows of the doorway to the kitchen. His mood of just seconds ago, buoyant, lustful, and eager, shattered and turned to a panicked horror as he watched his brother Jon step forward and introduce himself to Nell. Desperately he tried to will Jon to disappear, or at least to speak no further, that Hal himself might be the one reveal his true identity to her.

"And as for what I call your lucky guest, why brother and His Highness, Prince of Wales."

The words were spoken, impossible to be recalled. When he finally ascended the throne, years hence God willing, Hal vowed that his very first act would be to declare fratricide legal. 

"The Prince of Wales? Why what a fool I've been," he heard Nell utter in shock.

Watching her, the way her back stiffened and her head snapped up as if struck, Hal grieved for his Nell, cursing himself, his brother, all the world for inflicting any sort of unpleasantness on her. The men surrounding Jon, grasping leaches all, exchanged glances, chuckling amongst themselves, and Hal's hand itched to do violence to them. How dare they condescend to one so far above them in all measurable ways?

"Your Grace must pardon me, pray come inside," Nell said a moment later, wrapping herself in the poise and grace born of generations of nobility. "You and your fellows are most welcome here."

They would be more welcome at the bottom of the Chanel, Hal thought darkly. He should step forward, he knew. He should proclaim himself and rescue Nell from the situation she now found herself trapped in. Yet even as he knew this to be true, his feet refused to move. He did not think he could bring himself to look into her eyes, those lovely, fathomless grey pools that glistened like a calm winter sea, and see the betrayal shining there.

"Might I be so bold as to ask your name?" Jon asked Nell solicitously as she led them a few steps further into the room. "And into who's good care my brother fell?"

The way Jon was holding Nell's hand was becoming problematic for Hal. His younger brother had always been a touch quiet, particularly in comparison to Hal. This had allowed the general opinion of the world to think him shy, even a touch innocent. In fact, Hal knew that Jon was far more perceptive, and far more shrewd than people gave him credit for. He had noted long ago the way his brother used his reputation to put others, particularly women, at their ease. They would find themselves drawing him out, comforting him, assuaging his shyness, and the next thing they knew they would find themselves in his bed. Hal would be damned if Nell followed such a course. 

"My name is Eleonore D'Amboise, Sir," she told him, saying her full name for the first time in Hal's hearing. "My father is the Earl of Danbury. This house, though mean, belongs unto the Earl."

"D'Amboise! In sooth," one of the other men gasped, "oh fortune, smile you down! Perchance it then your mother is at home?"

Another round of ribald laughter, grating upon Hal's ears, greeted this question. The speaker, one Archibald West, was known to Hal, a younger son desperate for advancement. Silently he swore to make sure that the man was posted to the farthest reaches of Antipodes. 

"She is, sir, but doth not recieveth guests," Nell ground out repressively. "I fear it is with me that you must deal."

"A hardship more for you than for ourselves," Jon assured her sweetly. 

"I pray you all, be seated at your rest," Nell's voice was beginning to fray about the edges, "While I do go to fetch for you The Prince."

The bite on the last words was enough to convince Hal that she had had enough. Saying a silent prayer to whatever force might look out for wayward men, Hal steeled himself and stepped into the room.

"No need for that, my Lady, I am here."

As often happened all eyes instantly swung to him. He wished intently they had not. The men surrounding his brother were all quick to nod their heads in deference, even if their faces showed surprise or stark amusement based on their varying natures. Jon, a soft smile on his face that showed not a hint of surprise, raised a speaking eyebrow at Hal as he quickly took in Hal's casual clothing and the sling holding up his arm. Hal could see the questions unspoken in his brothers eyes, and sighed at the knowledge that a long and painful grilling was inevitable.

At last, reluctantly, he turned his eyes to Nell. Lord, she was beautiful in her anger! His first thought, fundamentally inappropriate, had him willing his over eager cock to stay still. This was decidedly not the time. As he focused in on her eyes, however, any stirrings of lust were quickly overcome by the icy cold deluge of regret. The hurt, betrayal, and worse embarrassment he saw cut him to the very bone. He needed to get her alone, he thought. To explain everything, as if there was an explanation sufficient to his crime

"Harry, thank the Lord that you are well," Jon said at last, as the accusing silence stretched out.

"I wrote to you as much, I do recall," he replied with silken malice, wanting to shake his brother for his ill timed arrival. "There was no reason, then, to seek me out."

"It seems you have a great deal to discuss," Nell's brisk voice cut through the tension between the brothers, "and therefore will I leave you to yourselves a go seek out some repast for your friends."

"But tarry, Nell, you do not need to flee," he pleaded, grabbing her arm as she went to go by him. 

"Your Highness must forgive me, as I hope," she ground out, not looking at him. "For I am not attired as I am in fit state to receive such august guests. I beg you, Sire, give me leave to go."

The title, spoken with such a mixture of formality and loathing, caused him to release her from his grasp.

"Then go Nell, but I warn you go not far," he told her quietly, voice pitched so only she could hear him. "For you and I have much still to discuss, and know, my love, that if you try to run, that I will go to Hell to track you down."

Not deigning to answer him, Nell dropped a quick, graceful curtsy and fled the room.

"It never ceases to amaze me Hal," Jon said, crossing to clap him on the shoulder, "how it doth matter not where you do go, but there be some fair, beddable maid there. Tell me, have you seen the mother yet? If rumor and the daughter's looks hold true, she must put Aphrodite then to shame! Come, out with it! I know you've lingered here. And now 'tis clear the reason for your stay. So is it just the daughter you pursued, or had your way with both of the D'Amboise?"

Not thinking, but acting purely on instinct, Hal's good arm swung out to strike his brother a blow across the face. Jon, reeling backwards from the punch in a quite satisfactory fashion, was quickly helped up by his companions to look accusingly at Hal.

"You will not speak, Jon, of the lady thus," he seethed. "She has done nothing to deserve such talk. It is all to her skill I owe my life, for I was left for dead, if you must know. The lady found me lying in the woods, wounds to my head, my ribs, a broken arm, and brought me back here to attend on me."

"Forgive me Hal, I did but speak in jest," Jon insisted, eyes wide at Hal's heat. "I mean no disrespect unto the maid."

"Then give none, for I will not hear a word that anyone shall speak against her, Jon. For she is clever, kind, and generous. Her family name, though the Earl be exiled, is of the highest rank, impeccable. And as for Nell, the Lady Eleonore, she is herself so far above you Jon, or me or any of those here amassed, that we should look up to but kiss her foot. So keep a civil tongue within your mouth, lest I be forced to disconnect your jaw."

"Why, faith now Harry, this is a new tune!" Jon laughed, massaging his jaw as he did. "What, would you wed her that you speak her so? Indeed, she must be a true paragon to so impress the wastrel Prince of Wales!"

"Try not to be an altogether fool," he sniped back. "Come, I would have a word or two alone."

As Hal led Jon outside into the sunshine, his mind reeled at his brother's words. The question, so idly put as it was struck Hal in the gut. Surely Jon did jest! Yes, Hal was rightly enraged by his brother's slight against Nell, and therefore sought to defend her honor, but what prince and knight would do less? He would not let so good a woman as she be slandered by anyone. Not when the only sin she had committed had come about at his hands. But marriage? That was years away, and no doubt destined to be to a foreign princess selected by his father more for her lineage and connections than for her figure or her mind.

And yet... that little voice whispered in his mind, if one were to look for lineage and connections, one could do far worse than a daughter of the D'Amboise family. 

"In faith now, Hal, be not so wrought with me," Jon was saying as they sat on low bench in front of the house. "I did not mean to raise your dander up."

"Why came you here to seek me, tell me that?" Hal demanded, letting his inward thoughts still. 

"'Twas not for idleness, nor mischief Hal," Jon's voice became serious. "The King, our father, seeks to have you home. I thought it better, having read your note, that I did seek you rather than his man. For, while I might make sport over your chase, I never would betray you to the King."

"Ah, thus I see you did act as a friend," Hal sighed, running his hand over his face. "And did receive for thanks nothing but blows. Forgive me, Jon, you caught me by surprise. The blow I landed you I should have rung against my own head, for I much trespassed. I had not told the Lady my true rank."

"I guessed as much, from watching her react," Jon grinned, much to Hal's irritation. "I must confess, it came as a surprise. If she did know who she had in her home, she might not have been quite so noble, Hal."

Jon had things so backwards that Hal could but laugh. He should be insulted, he knew, that his brother believed that his title might be the thing to attract Nell to him, but he himself had acknowledged that to most women it was great incentive. To his sweet Nell, though, his name was the thing which he feared would come between them.

"What happens that the King doth call me home?" he asked, knowing he must return and dreading it.

"Why war, what else? The border with the Welsh is all ablaze with skirmishes and raids. It will be full out battle before long."

"With Wales, you say, why that is just the thing!" Hal smiled grimly.

"I beg your pardon? Why say you such a thing?" Jon gaped at him. "I never knew you to have lust for blood."

"Nor do I now, though I shun not to fight," he shrugged, mind racing. "But there are matters I must soon arrange, for which I will require our Father's aid. And if there be unrest with our Welsh lands, it happily doth lay the ground work out."

"And might I know to what these matters tend?" Jon asked curiously. "For you to seek a favor of the King, it must be truly something of great weight!"

"It is indeed a thing most dear to me," he said, picturing Nell spread out on his bed. There is a wedding I mean to prevent, for that the would be groom is but a worm."

"And what can war with Wales avail to that?"

"Why Jon, his sympathies lie with the Welsh, or in any case might look to do. And if he were to rise in his estate, and ally with a greater power still, by forging of a sacred marriage bond, our Father would be strong against the match."

"I see, 'tis good of you to let him know," Jon's attempt to look innocent would most like have fooled others, but Hal saw right through it and bristled at his amusement. "That he might scorch this fire or ere it lights. But tell me, brother, who might be the groom? And who the hopeful bride that you would cross?"

"The bride is far from hopeful, lest it be a hope that this cursed wedding may be stopped. And do not think to I know not what you mean," Hal glared at his brother. "I owe her Jon, and would not see her wed, where she would be unhappy, that is all."

"If you do say so, Hal, I'll take your word," Jon said. 

"Speak not of this to any of your friends," Hal let his disapproval of Jon's cohorts sound in the word. "I do not wish it to be widely known. And while I speak of them, I want them gone. I do not trust a single one of them."

"Why, what a lark that you are grown so strict," Jon laughed out loud, rising and holding out his hand to Hal. "Have you no fear, I will away with them. But you, my brother, must be gone with us."

Hal closed his eyes, trying to deny the truth of his brother's words. He knew it was time. A summons from the King could not be denied, not even by the Crown Prince. His idyll here had come to an end, as he had known it would. If only he had a day more, he thought forlornly, or perchance a week. He had not even begun to discover the pleasure to be had with his darling Nell. Not that such pleasures would be granted now, but it was cruel that things should end when they had just begun.

"I will require an hour or two of time," he said, "for I must make amends to my hostess."

"Take all the time you need, my dearest Hal. As long as we are on the road today."

She would understand, he tried to tell himself. After all, he had not lied to her exactly. He had simply omitted titles. And in truth, it was no more than she had done herself. Except, he could not help but remember, she had come clean with the truth, confessed herself before they had consummated their affair. He, a coward, had remained silent. 

Could she find it in her heart to forgive him? And would he be able to live with himself if she did not?


	11. Recrimination

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nell confronts Hal with his deception. Will she ever be able to forgive him?

In all of her years on this planet, Nell had never felt such a burning rage. Even her anger when the hated Earl of Kent had recited that demeaning (and abominably written) poem about her to his cronies in a voice loud enough for her to easily over hear seemed but a slight irritation when compared to the fury that consumed her now. What made it all the worse was the near crippling embarrassment that went along with it. 

How could he? She had made herself an open book to the man. Shared her greatest fears, her insecurities, her _body_ with him! And the entire time as he had smiled and commiserated and presented himself as a paragon among men he had been lying to her face! It was not to be born! 

Was he even now, she wondered, boasting of his conquest to the sniggering gentlemen who had come to collect him? She knew - _everyone knew_ \- of the Crown Prince's reputation. Even here, tucked away from the world at large, the gossip had traveled. Rumor had it that Prince Hal was a frequent guest of every brothel and bawdy house East Cheap to Windsor. Had he run out of whores in the city then? Was that what had led him to wilds of Arden Woods and her door step?

Nell grimaced in pain as she twisted her hair up into a tight bun at the back of her head, making sure every last wisp was secured with her pins. She had already swapped her boy's hunting ensemble for a repressively dour grey dress. Of necessity she had selected one of the high necked garments normally reserved for warmer months. Her shame as she had caught sight of the bruises and love bits on her skin - so recently a cause for secret glee - threatened to make her weep, but she choked back the tears with the bile of her disgust.

Why? Why had she trusted him? Was it merely his pretty face? She had seen other comely men before, and never once been moved to licentiousness. True, none of them were as startlingly beautiful yet devilishly masculine as Hal - Prince Henry. Every thing about him, from the way he carried himself even while abed, to the commanding yet coaxing tone of his voice was designed to bring a woman to her knees. She had been just one more, she supposed sourly. One more victim of the easy charm she had heard so much about. Were she any other woman, she knew, she would despise her for caving so quickly to a practiced rogue. After all, he had made no secret, from the very start, that he meant to seduce her. Yet still she had walked right into his snare like a new born doe.

She had lingered in her room as long as she reasonably could, she realized at last. After fleeing the room like a coward, Nell had shouted orders to a perplexed Duncan to see to refreshments for the Duke of Gloucester and retreated to her room under the guise of changing her clothes. By now they should have all have had there laugh at the poor rustic baggage, no better than she should be and dressed like a boy to boot, that their Prince had made his latest conquest. With any luck they would have moved on to other matters, maybe even have departed by now. 

Nell had just turned with a squaring of her shoulders to reenter the fray when a loud knock sounded on her door.

"I come anon, for god's sake let me be," she snapped. "If that our uninvited guests should want, then they must ask of Duncan, for the nonce."

"But you yourself invited me, my dear," the hated, musical voice she so recently had been living for drifted through the heavy wood. "And what I would with you my sweetest Nell, no other soul could ever grant to me."

As her fingernails bit into the flesh of her palms Nell struggled to control her temper. Much as she might want to rail at him, to throw herself at him and claw his perfect face to bloody shreds, he was the heir apparent to all of England. Through a tightly clenched jaw she made her voice as polite as possible.

"You have had all of me a man could want," she told him through the door. "And now, I prithee Highness, let me be."

"Were I to live a hundred years or more," he said in a serious voice, "I never should nor could have all of you. For Nell, I promise you, I'll e're want more."

Unable to endure it any longer, Nell wrenched open the heavy door and had the pleasure of seeing Hal, who had been leaning upon it, stumble almost to his knees as he fell forward.

"There is no longer need for these sweet words," she spat at him. "You had your sport, seduced me to your bed. And what is more, you worked you whiles so well that in the end 'twas I who sought out you. A marvelous story, Sire, to tell your friends. So go you to them now and make your boasts."

"I swear to you, upon my mother's soul, these many years interred in her tomb, that never shall the truth of what we shared, of that most precious gift you gave to me, pass o'er my lips unto another's ear."

"Sweet words, my Prince, and easy for to say," she snapped.

"Sweet truth, sweet Nell, and ever more to keep," he insisted, making a try for her hand which she quickly moved behind her back to clasp its fellow.

"Your common exploits, Sire, I fear proceed you," she informed him with a sneer. "For even we so far away from court know that the Prince of Wales is quite the cad. They say no lady can resist his bed, although more often does he pleasures buy. Tell me, oh noble Prince, why came you here? Were all the whores of London sick with pox? Or could it be perhaps that you had heard the lonely Lady D'Amboise lingered here, abandoned by her husband when he fled? Is that what brought you underneath our roof? A hope to sample of that famous fruit? How disappointed then you must have been that she was not to be receiving guests. To come all of this way and then be forced to needs make do with me must be a blow."

"Now stop it Nell, you know not what you say!" he snarled, grabbing her by the shoulder with his good hand and shaking her hard. 

For a moment they stared at each other from a mere breath away. Even through the miasma of her anger, the gulf of her despair, Nell could feel the pull from him. The way his eyes dilated as she swayed momentarily towards him was almost enough to make her believe he felt it too, that undeniable attraction flowing between them. After the silence had stretched, marred only by their heavy breathing, Hal at last shook his head a swiped his tongue over his lips.

"If it indeed had gone as you purpose," he said at last, voice quiet and firmly held in check, "then why would you have found me as you did? Think you I hungered so to breach these walls that I arranged my varied injuries? Would I have broke my arm, or hurt my head? You know that all I'd ever need to do was knock upon the door and state my name if I did seek an entrance to your home."

"Tis true, I grant, that being so a Prince," she glared at him, "you can have all you that you desire and more, and barely have to ask ere it be yours."

"Not all, my Nell, for there exists one thing, one simple thing I find I most desire, and yet I find it still eludeth me," he said softly.

"Your Grace must pardon if I do not mourn," she shrugged with more disinterest than she felt, "for this your loss is no concern of mine."

"Ah there, sweet Nell, I fear that you are wrong," he told her, still holding her eyes with his, "in that it is all up to you to grant."

"What more, Lord Prince, would you now have me give?" she demanded, almost at her breaking point. The way he was looking at her, so sincerely, was making her ache through her anger. It should be impossible, she thought bitterly, for anyone so founded in deceit to appear so earnest. "Was not my maidenhead enough for you?"

"Oh, it was more to me than words can say," he smiled almost sadly at her. "In all my life I never have received a gift more precious than you granted me. Yet there is something more for which I yearn. My darling love, can you not find your way, even as undeserving as I am, to grant me just one smile from your dear lips?"

As he spoke the words, Hal's thumb brushed across her mouth, causing a noise close to sob to escape from her. Why was he being like this? She wanted to hate him! To curse him! She did not want him to remind her of all that she would miss of him when he left, as he surely was about to do.

"I fear you ask the perhaps the only thing that I find now impossible to give," Nell choked out, turning away from him and crossing to sink down onto the edge of her bed.

All of her anger was dangerously leaching out of her she realized, only to be replaced by despair. She did not want to still feel for this man. This Adonis who had deceived her into caring about him. That, in truth, hurt more than all the rest. She had gone into his bed with the most mercenary of goals - ridding herself of her loathed suitor. Yet somehow she had risen from it clear in the knowledge she had been hiding from herself. She had fallen, hopelessly fall, for this man. This _Prince._ He had, in the space of a very short time, become almost everything to her, and she was nothing, a mere footnote at best, to him. A pleasant interlude to alleviate his boredom while he healed. 

"I grieve to see your face so clouded o'er," he said, dropping to one knee in front of her, "and know I am the cause of all your woes. I beg you, darling, here on bended knee, that you forgive me for my grievous crime."

"There is, your Highness, nothing to forgive," she said at last, voice dead and numb. "You never really told to me a lie. Why even the false name you did supply, Harry LeRoy, if I recall it right, is but name that you shall come unto. Oh lord, you must have laughed that I, half French, did not see through so simple a disguise."

"I never laughed at you, nor never would," he promised her. 

"Be as it may, I am the one at fault," she said. "I do confess I knew you told not all. Yet so obsessed was I with my own plight, and so distracted to have company, that I did not look further into it."

"You plight, my dear, was serious enough," he said, daring to rub her arm. "It is no shock it did consume you so."

"Well, you prevented that, so take my thanks," she laughed without humor. "Though now I do bethink me I should not divulge unto my hated would-be groom, just who it was who beat him to the prize. Did you not stop to think when I did ask that your deflowering me could start a war?"

"It did, I must confess, enter my mind."

"Ah, now I see, it was the reason then that you did first hold back from taking me."

More and more she needed him to leave. All of her memories were being corrupted by the knowledge of what and who he was. Would she have nothing, no fond remembrance to keep her warm as she sank into spinsterhood?

"It was one reason Nell, I will not lie," he nodded. "The politics are chancy at the best. If it should come to light what we have done it could risk war with France and with the North. They do but wait for any small excuse, and you provide match to light their flame."

"Well, then I must believe you spoke the truth and will not speak my shame to those your friends who linger down below waiting for you."

"Those men are not my friends, I like them not," he told her with a curl of his lip. "They follow at my brother's too kind heels and fight for scraps that he lets fall behind."

"I must say I am glad, for I liked not the look of any single one of them. His Grace, your brother, I of course except."

"Do not, my Nell, like him too over much," Hal all but growled. "I would not want to have to challenge him."

"You have no need, I have no honor Sire," she sighed, feeling sorry for herself.

"You have more honor in you dainty hand," he told her, raising it to his lips as she winced at the touch, "than most have in their person, Nell my love."

"No!" she insisted suddenly, tearing her hand away from him and jumping to her feet.

"What did I say to upset you so?" he asked, eyes wide.

"I'm not your love, you _will not_ call me that!" she seethed at him. "And now, Lord Prince, I think the time has come for you to and your train to all take your leave. Will you please make my farewell to the Duke? I fear I have a throbbing in my head and must take to my bed until it pass."

Hal stood, staring at her with unfathomable eyes. For a moment she thought that he would refuse, that he would stay and force her to continue this torturous conversation. Part of her, that weak, pathetic part that refused to relinquish the last thread of hope, wished that he would. Finally, however, he nodded and gave her a brisk, courtly bow. 

"You have not hear the last of me, my Lady," he told her in a voice that refused argument, "for I have vowed to see your wedding stopped, and come what may I shall fulfill that vow in such a way that does no harm to you. Your reputation I hold as my own, I will not hear one word against you Nell. And so adieu until I manage things. At such time I'll return and tell you how. Until then, please, I beg, do nothing rash."

Turning on his heel, Hal left the room, shutting her door behind him. As the sound echoed in her chamber, Nell hurled herself to her mattress and, for the third time in an alarmingly short window, wept as though her heart had broken. She feared indeed it had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for your kind words and encouragement on this fic! It really is a labor of love for me right now.
> 
> Just a quick note - this week is super busy work wise for me (yearly budget proposal due to our board of directors next Thursday) so I apologize if updates are not as quick as they have been. I will do my best! Love you all!!!


	12. The Best Laid Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hal has an audience with his father. Will he be able to convince Henry to nullify the engagement between Nell and Northumberland?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I am so appreciative of your support. I have really come to love Hal & Nell, and it just delights me that many of you do as well. Thank you so very much!

Hal paced the hall outside his father's audience chamber like a caged animal searching for escape. He wondered at times whether the old man kept him cooling his heals not for any actual reason beyond a show of power. He would not put such pettiness beyond the king.

He had spent the entire three day ride from Arden Woods to London meticulously planning how he would approach his father. Heaven knew Henry was prickly, particularly to his eldest son. The delicate matter he needed to broach could far too easily be sabotaged if not handled in the correct way.

Hal could not let that happen. He owed it to Nell to keep his vow, that she need not sacrifice her honor to avoid marriage to a grasping lout only interested in her money and her mother's supposed charms. Hal chose to willfully ignore the thought that Northumberland's interest in Nell might go beyond what she and her mother believed. He did not want to be forced to ride north and kill the Earl in a violent and bloody fashion.

Perhaps if he could affect this escape for Nell he would be able to erase the memory of her eyes, shining as they had with recrimination. That the fiery, headstrong darling he had come to know so well had been reduced to the haunted looking woman he had bidden farewell to was almost intolerable. Even worse was the knowledge that he was the villain who had caused her such pain. He had to show her, despite what she must believe at the moment, that her faith in him had not been misplaced.

"For love of heaven, Hal, will you not sit?" Jon asked in an aggrieved voice. "You will not make the minutes less with pacing."

Hal shot his brother a withering glance but managed to hold back the waspish retort that sprung unbidden to his mind. It was not Jon's fault that Hal was in this predicament. Indeed, his brother had been near to a saint on the ride back, allowing Hal to talk out his strategy to win their sire's backing to his plan.

If Jon sometimes could not resist a smug grin or a knowing glance at Hal when the elder prince refused to let go of the dilemma for any other topic, well Hal could hardly fault him for that. He knew were circumstances reversed he would be mocking to scorn his brother or any other man so obsessed with the opinion and fate of one woman. What this said about his feelings for the woman in question he also chose not examine too closely.

"His Majesty will give you audience," the old Archbishop of Canterbury droned in his sonorous voice, as if personally granting Hal a great favor, as he at last emerged from the chamber. It was men like this, Hal thought peevishly, that enforced his father's ill will towards his eldest son. Self righteous, sanctimonious sot. Hal could only curl his lip at the cleric as he shoved past him.

"We thank you, Holy Father, for your pains," Jon said solicitously, following Hal as he strode into the room, determination coursing through him.

"My King and Father, may God keep you well," Hal stated, bowing crisply to the old, leathery man on the throne.

"So you are come at last back to our court," Henry said with disdain evident in his voice. "I will not ask how came you by your hurts, for fear of what the truth of them might be. At least you manage yet to keep your head, despite your wild starts and thoughtless deeds."

"Right sorry am I to so disappoint, I know that you do wish it were not so." Hal could not resist saying. He was sure his father would prefer the more biddable Jon was his heir.

"I wish indeed you were not so debauched and unselective with your choice of friends that every week I hear of some new crime or other vice that you have sunk unto."

As Hal opened his mouth to taunt his father back, Jon's quelling hand landed on his shoulder with a warning squeeze. Drawing a steadying breath Hal shot his brother a grateful look. This was not the time to engage in yet another round of fruitless quarreling with his father. He had other, more important matters to discuss than once more debating all of his inadequacies.

"You called for me, My King, and I am here," he said instead, silently adding the expletives he could never say aloud. "So has it come to war with our Welsh lords?"

"Still skirmishes of yet, as we do hear," his father said, stroking his chin fretfully. "Our hope is that the threat of our great force, which even now brave York has in command, amassed along their borders will stamp out the fire of rebellion in their blood."

"A good and loyal man was ever York," Hal nodded, thinking of the stolid warrior. "Though not perhaps the swiftest one of thought."

"Be that as may, the numbers favor us," Henry continued, almost to himself. "If we can keep the Welsh from gaining ground, the turning of the seasons wins us all, for they cannot pass from their rugged land when snow and ice begin to block them in."

There it was! The opening he had been waiting for! Wetting his lips as he strove to find the perfect phasing, Hal adopted an unconcerned pose.

"'Tis true, yet I heard rumor on the road," he began, picking his way carefully, "of plans that would give hope unto the Welsh that soon their numbers might indeed increase."

"What rumor? Some stray gossip mean you sir?" his father demanded, agitation clear in his voice. "Or speak you of a serious affair?"

"I speak sir, of a marriage in the works. The which, I fear, if it proceed unchecked, would grant to both funds and allies of great note unto Northumberland who, as you know, hath ever the Welsh rebels held in love."

"Northumberland to marry? Are you sure?" Henry rose and began pacing the room, taking the bate that Hal had so casually laid out for him.

"As sure as if I read the contract o'er," Hal shrugged carelessly. "I chanced to meet the lady he would wed. The daughter of the Earl of Danbury, one Eleonore D'Amboise as she is called, herself did tell me of the marriage pact."

"And so again doth Danbury rise to vex me!" Henry fretted, pounding his fist into the other hand. "I thought that having sent the man away to try his fortune far from these our shores, I might escape the trouble he could cause. His child is not only of his blood, but daughter of the French house of Amboise!"

"I'faith, I now recall that you are right!" Hal said in feigned surprise. "If she should ally with Northumberland, who as you know gives succor to the Welsh, then she would bring more forces from our north, as well as kinship with the throne of France!"

"Oh Sire, this match must not come to be!" Jon added helpfully after Hal surreptitiously elbowed him when their Father was not looking.

"The Welsh, the north, and France all joined as one," Henry said, agitated. "By God, how all my enemies align!"

"Yet 'tis a thing that's easy to prevent," Hal ventured, still doing his best to keep his voice casual. He was close, so close to getting his father where he wanted him! "You are the King, Northumberland your vassal. It therefore lies within your power to bar a marriage so displeasing to the throne."

"True, true, I could forbid them now to wed," Henry mulled it over. 

"You could, and none would question your decree," Jon encouraged him. "For all the world doth know Northumberland hath ever been a grasping malcontent."

"Yet if the maid is kin of the French King," his father said, "it goes not well to serve her such a turn. We are not yet secure on this our throne, that we would wish to do such injury to one who lives protected by his name."

Hal had been afraid of this. His father was too timid of war with France for Hal's liking, no doubt in part due to his own exile in that country under Charles' sufferance. If it was a choice between allowing Northumberland to amass more strength and insulting the French king, Hal could guess on which side his father would land. If he were to save Nell, he realized, he would have to add the final ingredient to the plot. 

"King Charles might so, indeed, be out of sorts," Hal nodded, "were we to thwart the hopes of his fair niece and leave her to a life of spinsterhood. Unless, that is, another could be found, to take the part of groom and wed the lass. If he could be persuaded to perceive Northumberland as the inferior choice, he would then have no reason to be wroth."

Hal steadfastly did not meet the eyes of his brother, who was staring opened mouthed at him. He had realized on their trek back that this might be the only way, short of revealing their tryst, to free Nell from the match.

He had studied his father all his life, he knew the way the man thought, even if he didn't often agree with him. An honor feud with Charles Valois of France was not something the senior Henry would be prepared to chance. A sacrifice would have to be made. Oddly, the more Hal contemplated the idea, the more he found it less a sacrifice and more a chance at salvation.

"A groom you say, I s'pose it could be done," his father thought aloud.

"It would need perforce to be someone close to your throne in love and lineage if it were to eclipse Northumberland," Hal added, to make sure that things were still headed the way he planned. Nell would hardly thank him, after all, if he freed her from Northumberland only to have her wed to some equally old and ponderous lord. "As luck would have it, she is very fair, and learned too in all a Lady's skills."

"If the maid's dam is Elouise D'Amboise," Henry huffed, glancing up at him, "then you need not to tell me she is fair. But there are other things that matter more. You Jon, you have chanced to meet the lass. Do you agree with what your brother says?"

Jon gave Hal a long, searching look which was returned blandly before turning back to his father with a small smile on his lips.

"My time with her was sadly much more brief than those hours which my brother spent with her. For t'was the lady, if I have it right, that healed his wounds and restored him to health. But I can say in all that I observed, the Lady Eleonore doth well possess all qualities desired in spouse. 'Tis my opinion, Sir, that any man who takes the lady as his wedded wife, will never for one moment that regret."

Hal smiled at his brother, silently thanking him for the endorsement. As much as it galled him, their father had always preferred Jon and his cautions way of speaking. Henry had much more kinship with his second son than with his brash your namesake. Hal was his mother's child in temperament: quick, strong willed, and proactive. Not for the first nor hundredth time Hal regretted that his mother had not lived to bridge the gap between her cautious husband and reckless son.

"Oh, very well, my sons, you have convinced me," Henry said at last, causing Hal to jolt upright with suppressed triumph. "I'll have an edict drawn up by the morn forbidding her to wed Northumberland. Along with that a contract shall be writ to marry her instead unto my son. This should thus mollify her family."

It was done! He had managed to out maneuver them all! Elouise, Northumberland, even his father had been bested by him! It was a difficult thing to keep his victory concealed, lest he anger his father and endanger the whole scheme. 

If there was a slight panic at the thought of his wild, bachelor days coming to an unlooked for end, Hal was able to counter them. The image of Nell, naked but for the fall of her hair, laid out on his bed, face flushed with desire for him, was enough to banish any other longings. Of all the many bedmates he had sported with, never had any so captured his imagination as did this one woman who now seemed destined to be his bride.

"Well, Jon, I fear you've little time to rest," Henry said fondly to his younger son. "Tomorrow must you set out once again to Arden Woods to go collect your bride!"

Both brothers stood, rooted to the spot, staring with mouths agape at their father.

"I fear, my liege, I did not hear you right," Jon said at last, first to regain his voice. "For it did sound to me you said _my_ wife."

"And so I did, why look you both in shock?" their father asked them. "Was not it, sons, unto this self same end that you did hope to lead me by the nose?"

Ah, so he had been aware the entire time that Hal and Jon were after something. Well, he had ever been clever. But Jon? Jon marry Nell? The thought would not even solidify in Hal's brain. It must be a jest, some cosmic calamity of the universe, no doubt, but not something that could ever actually happen!

"But, good my lord, why falls this fate on me?" Jon asked, still in shock.

"You both agreed it must be one of rank that would appease her uncle the French king" Henry ticked off on his fingers. "That then assumes a man of royal blood. I have no living brothers yet unwed. My other sons are still unbloodied boys. Who else then is there left to wed the girl?"

"I thought, my Father, to wed her myself," Hal said.

"You are the Prince of Wales, next English king!" his father looked at him as though he were insane. "Why would I have you marry to this girl, a relative of France though she may be, when you could make a match with his own daughter? And if perchance you like not the Valois, some other princess will be found for you. And so shall you cement our English house in grand alliance with some other throne."

"But father - " 

"Silence! I am done with this!" Henry interrupted him. "You asked my intersection in the match, that she should not wed old Northumberland. Well, I have done as you requested me. The girl shall have a husband of our house, and that alone is honor done to her. Ask not for more, for I have none to give. Your brother Jon shall bring her to our court, that I may for myself observe the maid. If she is all that you would have me think, then she will soon your loving sister be."

As Hal's mouth hung like an idiot, his father waved his hand at them in dismissal. It took his brother's tugging at his arm before his legs began to work and he found himself walking blindly from the room. 

"God's teeth, but what a coil are we in now!" Jon groaned, sinking down onto the nearest bench.

"I swear it, Jon, though I do love you well, I never will allow you two to wed!" Hal whispered, dropping his head into his hands.

"And think you I am eager for this match?" his brother challenged him. "To wed unto one who doth love my brother?"

"Love me? You know not what it is you speak," Hal laughed bitterly. 

"I know what I did see, for I have eyes," Jon argued. "If ever I did see two fools in love, then it was you and Lady Eleanor."

He was wrong, Hal thought. So completely, laughably, wrong. Nell did not love him, she despised him, and with good reason. And as for his feelings for her, well! He cared for her, certainly, and respected her as he did few others. She had wit and spirit along with the most bewitching allure of any woman he had clapped eyes. But love? Surely it was not that. Love was a word used by poets or men seeking to turn a lass' head. It had no place in the world in which Hal lived.

And yet, if it was not love, why in that moment, when he had done everything in his power to support him, did Hal so suddenly, so intensely hate his favorite brother?


	13. Messages Delivered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nell is not taking well to Hal's departure. Will a message from the court change her feelings for the better or the worse?

It was as if a specter had been haunting the halls of Danbury cottage for the past week. Or perhaps, Nell silently amended, she should make that two specters. After all, Elouise had been hardly more than a ghost herself since they had made the move into the dwelling on the edge of Arden Woods.

Nell had withdrawn into herself almost completely. She ate her meals solitarily when she could, silently when forced into company. The larder was amply stocked, meaning she did not need to bestir herself to hunt. The weather, amiably echoing her mood, was damp and blustery, so she kept indoors for her skulking.

All around her the household was astir. Elouise had given instructions for two addition maids to be brought in, along with a pile of expensive materials, from a nearby village. The extra seamstresses, along with the rest of the women, were busy from sunrise to sunset with sewing and embroidering. They were making her trousseau, Nell knew. Some small part of her mind felt sorry that all of their hard work was to be in vain. Perhaps the gowns could be remade for Elouise. Her mother was taller and more slender than she, but with a few alterations Nell had no doubt that the older woman would look far more regal in the gowns than she ever could.

It amused her on some level, as much as she could be amused by anything these days, that no one even asked her once to help. Her mother knew her too well for that, it seemed. The newer girls had asked her once or twice if she were not excited by the upcoming wedding, but she had merely shrugged her shoulders and walked away. No doubt they would attribute it to nerves of a virginal bride-to-be.

"Tis time that we discussed things, Eleonore," a voice barged into her thoughts where she slouched on a bench in her sitting room, staring out into the moody drizzle. No one except her parents ever called her by that name, certainly not Duncan who currently stood, hands on hips, determined look on his face, before her.

"My mind is occupied with other things," she told him dully. "Besides, I think we both know by this time that you with great aplomb are equal to whatever task that wants now to be done."

"What I would say concerneth not the house, nor any chore, nor task, nor homely work," he told her with great asperity. 

"Well what is it, and quickly if you will," she sighed. "For I desire most to be alone."

"It is just that on which I need to speak," he said. "I know my child that you have suffered hurt, and hurt I too myself for your dear sake. But Nell, you must not let grief eat you whole. I watched as it devoured Elouise, while I sat idly back and could do naught. But I will wrestle Satan in the pit, and put my own immortal soul to hock, before I let that self-same malady have its accursed way with you as well."

"Dear Duncan, you are best among all men," she smiled sadly at him. "But fear you not, I am not my _maman_ , to turn my back on all out of my spite. Our situations hardly are the same."

"For one so wise so young, you can be blind," he told her bluntly, sitting down beside her. "Think you alone know what it is to grieve, and feel your heart is rent unto its core? Your mother was not born as she is now, nor was she like this when she birthed you. She suffers deep within her very soul for all that she herself is severed from."

"Aye, from her castle, bards, and all her court," Nell said. 

"You know not what you speak if you speak so," he corrected her sharply. "For never was there such a fool in love, unless perhaps it be her foolish child, than Elouise D'Amboise was for her lord."

"When he was tourney's golden knight, no doubt, and added to her greater consequence."

"Dear Nell, you were too young, you saw it not," he sighed. "But I, alas, did witness every glance. She loved Lord Danbury with fire unquenched until the very day that he did leave."

"Ah, that explains her constant string of _beaux_ ," Nell pointed out sarcastically, "a long line of the tawdriest affairs, of which my loving bridegroom I believe, was just the last but by no means the first."

"Yes, she did act in unadvised ways," Danbury allowed. "As fools I'm told are often wont to do. But every single way she did rebel was all done just for one desired end. To make your father, once a man besot, turn his attention back to her again. She sought to raise his passions any way, be it with anger, jealousy, or love. That she did seek in vain was tragedy that in end did kill her joy of life."

"If it is true, than I do pity her," Nell said at last after she had thought through the old man's revelations. "But she had duties other than her lord, as to her household and her retinue."

"Aye, that she did, and also to her child," Duncan said gently. "For I do think if woman has a child, or if a man, though some would disagree, all pursuits else must thence be set below the health and happiness of that small life which they did birth into this cold, hard world. How often I have grieved for you, my Nell, that in your life you never felt that love, as every child should feel that they come first."

Nell felt a tell tell haze begin to cloud her vision as she looked at Duncan's earnest face. As she willed the tears to keep from falling, her mind flashed on the past. There was a younger Duncan, twinkling eyes in his then handsome face as he sat with her, her cloth doll, and a beleaguered barn cat sipping imaginary tea. Or there was Duncan leading out her first pony and helping her to mount. Duncan, older but not quite so much as now, following her through the woods as she chased after her first deer, praising her even when her arrows missed there mark. And finally, Duncan quietly supporting her as she set about to reform there household, no help from her parents, and she a girl scant ten years old.

"You silly man, you do not speak the truth," she told him, tears standing in her eyes. "For from the first of all my memories, I felt that love continually from you."

"I never had a child of my own," Duncan said, his own tears flowing freely down his face, "but never did I count that as a loss. For from the very day that you were born, you did become the child of my heart."

Nell threw her arms around the old man's neck and took comfort in his thin, frail frame. She had been feeling lost and lonely since Hal had left, so without a friend in the world. How absurd that was, when her greatest friend and ally was still here by her side. Although...

"If that is true old man than tell me this," she demanded, pulling back and giving him a hard look, "how can you go along with this dread plan to sell me like I was some piece of meat unto that letch that help disgrace _maman_?"

"Ah there she is! My fiery Nell at last!" Duncan laughed heartily, dashing the tears from his face. "I wondered where she'd gone all this long while. So many times this week I thought I'd choke when hearing all the hens cluck at the match and you sat silent rather than explode!"

"But you approved it, said you thought it best!" she reminded him, head suddenly spinning.

"And what would you have had me say that day?" he demanded. "There before the gossips at the stove, should I have called your mother to account? How long think you ere it got back to her? I also did devise, if you recall, that we were talking of the hated plot when your young, handsome patient happened by. Thus should he learn of your unhappy fate and perchance help to rid you of the match."

The devious old man! Nell looked in newfound appreciation at her wily advisor. It had never occurred to her that the servants might carry tales to her mother. Before Hal's arrival there had been no tales to tell! And had Duncan been playing match maker with her and Hal? She supposed he had expected Hal to carry her away like a prince in a fairytale. The irony was bitter in her throat.

"What, pray tell, did you think he would do?" she asked at last.

"I know not as to that, I must confess. But it was clear as crystal by that time the boy was over ears in love with you. Alas that he should have to be a prince. For any rank but that and I would think by now you would be married to the lad."

"Romantic nature hath now turned your head," she told him sadly. "He loved me not, of that I am convinced."

"And wherefore think you that, if may ask?"

"Why that he never trusted me, to start," she said, rising to pace the room. "He kept from me his name and parentage, let me believe he was of lower rank, allowed my feelings to become attached, while all the while he knew it could not be."

"If memory hath not abandoned me, I do recall you told him not your name, nor rank, nor parentage when you did meet," Duncan reminded her.

"If you were Elouise's daughter, sir, believe me you would learn to hide it too. Nor is the Count of Danbury a name to boast about to one so newly met."

"Whereas the king, who many would avow did somewhat recently usurp his throne, is easier by far to live beneath."

"Oh, very well, I see that could be true," she said begrudgingly, "but I confessed my name before we - when we grew close."

Her face turned a telltale she of red that she hoped Duncan's old eyes were too clouded to notice. Faith, she had almost announced that she had coupled with the prince! Where had her mind gone to?

"I thought we had all out into the open," she continued after a moment, "and foolishly I hoped he was my friend. Of all men you know I am slow to trust. My life experience hath taught me hard. And yet because he was so fair of face, and glib of tongue as well to go with that, I let him worm his way into my heart. The more fool I, as we did come to see."

"I think you are to hard upon the boy," Duncan told her gently. "For I did see his face when he observed his brother tell you who he truly was. The stricken look so naked in his eyes could not be feigned, of that I take an oath."

"Ay, like because his game had been caught out before he chanced to make good his escape. What man alive be he a prince or serf, doth relish being called unto account?"

"I see there is no reasoning with you as it concerns the poor departed prince," her friend sighed. "In any case there's greater things at hand which you and I must now seek to undo."

As Nell bit her lip, struggling to decide whether or not to tell her beloved tutor of the actions she had already taken to ensure her marriage did not precede, a knock was heard on the door below, followed by a flurry of activity. As she was just standing to investigate, a flustered maid came running into the room, out of breath with excitement. 

"Oh my Lady, you must come at once!" Marie exclaimed, "for the young, handsome lord hath here returned!"

Could it be true? Nell thought, hand going to her mouth in shock as humming birds began once again to gather in her stomach. Had Hal actually made good on his promise to come back and extricate her from her dismal fate?

Silently ruing her haggard appearance, she threw one glance at the delighted and slightly smug looking Duncan and headed for the stairs. It was all she could do to keep herself for racing down them three at a time, but she wished to preserve some semblance at least of dignity. As she reached the bottom and entered into the hall she raised her eyes to see him standing there.

Jon, the Duke of Gloucester. 

"Forgive me gracious Lady, once again," Hal's brother said with a nervous bow, "for thus intruding so into your home. I swear to you, it is not my intent to so cut up your every bit of peace."

Nell stared at him dumbly, wondering what on earth could possibly bring this son of the king, the _wrong_ son, to her doorstep. 

"Your Grace is always welcome to this house," Duncan intoned, when he realized Nell had lost her power of speech. "It is no imposition, but an honor."

"I hope you find it so when I have spoke," Jon said with a grimace as he stood dripping rain water onto the floor. "I fear I carry missives from the king, which might perchance to change your thoughts of me."

"But came your Grace of Gloucester here alone?" Nell rasped, finding her voice at last.

"Alone, my lady, save only my squire," he replied, turning his kind, pitying eyes to her. "He presently is tending to our mounts. The news I carry did demand a haste that I might better achieve on my own."

"Why what news would that be, _mon cher le_ _Duc_?" a musical voice demanded from behind Nell. "My ears did not deceive me, I do trust, are you, _c'est vrai_ , _le Duc de_ Gloucester?"

Nell closed her eyes in a silent prayer for patience as her mother descended the last stairs and stopped beside her. A quick glanced confirmed that, unlike her unkempt daughter, Elouise was the picture of grace and beauty. Her ice blue dress draped across her tall, slender frame to give her a lithe, willow like appearance of youth. The sheer gauze that veiled her did not conceal as much as it softened the contours of her face. Jon's gaze was rapt as he stared at such a vision out of legend.

"You heard correct, my Lady, I am he," Jon stammered in an awed voice. "The second son unto our King Henry. And you, if I may be so bold to say, could only be that beauty so renowned throughout the world, the Lady Danbury."

"Elouise D'Amboise, I do prefer," she practically purred at the young man, offering up her hand for him to kiss. "I am much gratified that one so young would ever have the chance to know of me."

"Your reputation doth proceeded you ma'am," he assured her. "And yet, I do not hesitate to say, that though all of the world doth speak you fair, the praise doth not begin to match the truth."

"Oh, flattering boy, you are most welcome here!" Elouise smiled. "But Eleonore, where are your manners, child? _Cher Duc_ come in and make yourself at rest. Duncan, _tout de suite_ , a towel for his Grace! And bring some wine as well when you return! Now tell us what great providence of chance should bring a _Duc Royal_ unto our home?"

As Duncan beat a hasty retreat to fetch a proper welcome for their visitor, Nell trailed her mother and Jon into the room. Elouise seated herself gracefully upon a bench, but Jon and Nell, both anxious, remained standing and ill at ease.

"I bring an edict from his majesty," Jon replied, looking more uncomfortable by the moment. "Right sorry am I if it likes you not."

"The matter of this edict, tell us that," Elouise insisted grandly. "For I cannot conceive me in my mind what business _le roi_ should have with us."

"I fear it doth concern a nuptial pact, that would align you to Northumberland," Jon said miserably, as Nell blinked in surprise. "The king in his great wisdom hath proclaimed the marriage is forbidden to go forth."

He had don it! Hal had actually found a way to stop her marriage with the hated Earl! A deluge of emotions suddenly assaulted Nell, and she fell more than sat onto the wooden stool behind her. He had done as he had promised, saved her without revealing their scandalous act.

If only, she thought, he had cared enough to come here and deliver the news himself. But then, what should she expect? That he had sent his brother rather than some lesser messenger, at least bespoke respect if not affection, and she had no real claim to anything beyond than that. She should be glad she need not face him again. She was glad, she tried to convince herself.

" _Alors, ce n'est possible, je proteste!_ " her mother exploded to her feet in a flurry of French. "This will not stand! Knows he not the French king, Charles Valois himself to be my kin? If he should such dishonor do to us, then I will see him much revenged upon!"

"Relax, _maman_ , there's nothing we can do," Nell said in a soothing tone as Elouise paced about the room.

"Believe me, ma'am, he meant no disrespect," Jon insisted pleadingly. "Or not, in any case, to you or yours. It is the Earl he seeks to reprimand. And, for to show that he esteems you well, and seeks to do but honor to your house, I have a second message to impart, if you will grant me patient hearing now."

"What is it then? Come tell us, if you can," Duncan, who Nell had not even noticed reentering the room, said in a calming voice as he handed Jon a towel. "The wine is on its way, come Elouise. Sit you down again and let him speak."

"I thank you, gentle sir, but if I may," Jon said as he ineffectually dabbed at his hair, "have private audience be granted me, to speak a word or two with Lady Nell? The words that I would speak concern her most. I promise, I will seek to do no harm."

He was so different, Nell could not help thinking, from his brash, forward brother. Hal would never in a hundred years have looked so tragically deferential. No, the older prince, even wet and dripping, would have radiated virile command in a way that brooked no refusal. Unwilling picturing him in Jon's stead, Nell felt a wave of heat through her body.

"Of course, my lord, we may have words apart," Nell said, pushing her inappropriate thoughts aside. "Duncan, can you attend to my _maman_? _Chere madame_ , do not be so o'erset. You know, _cherie_ that while I did draw breath this marriage never would have come to be."

With those last whispered words to her hyperventilating parent, Nell quickly led Jon into the kitchen, where Maude was just pouring out a pitcher of hot mulled wine. Grabbing a goblet of the spicy liquid for each of them, she mutely gestured for the servants to leave them and took a seat at the long wooden table.

"I think, your grace, you know my gratitude," she told Jon quietly, "the news you bring could not delight me more."

"I know not that, when I tell you the rest," he answered cryptically, tugging at the collar of his cape.

"Well then best have it out, tell me the worst," she sighed, taking a long swallow of wine. "Am I exiled unto the courts of France? Or sent to convent to become a nun? I promise you those fates would please me more than to be married to Northumberland."

"I see why 'tis my brother likes you so," Jon smiled at her. "Your forthright manner matches much with his. You neither one would hideth from your fate, but meet it with your sword raised high aloft."

"A bow for me, I thank you just the same," she said with a grin, ignoring the way her insides jumped at the simple news that Hal liked her. "I fear my skill is lacking with a blade."

"I am surprised to hear it, dearest Nell," he said, surprising her with his use of endearment before her name. "For I had thought you capable of all. No convent walls await to lock you in. Nor are you sent away from these are shores. The fate my father has in mind for you is to be found here, closer than you think."

Nell looked at him expectantly, but Jon just ran his hand through his hair and shook his head.

"I know not what did pass t'wixt you and Hal while he did lie in convalescence here," Jon began, not quite meeting her eyes. "No more do I desire to intrude on past affairs that do concern me not."

As Jon seemed uncertain how to continue, Nell felt obliged to come up with something to say.

"As you do know, I was not then aware of the exalted state of he, our guest. I therefor in my ignorance presumed to make of him a friend while he was here. Please think you not that I seek to encroach upon the privileges of his great name. While I do wish him well in everything, I have no thought of seeing him again."

"Well, that shall be as it will come to be," Jon grimaced. "My Lady Nell, you know that you are fair. And more than that, you wit and breeding shine so far above that they might be the stars."

"Why how now, do you turn to poetry?" Nell asked uneasily. "Your Grace must please forgive me if I laugh, but since you just have met my _chere_ _maman_ , you will then understand how much I lack the graces that you list unto my name."

"Your mother has great beauty, it is true," Jon nodded. "I will admit it took me by surprise. But her fair face in no way marreth yours, in troth it just explains whereof it comes. But this strays from my point, pray pardon me."

"What is your point, your Grace, if I may ask?"

"It comes to this, my dearest Lady Nell," he said, taking a deep breath and walking to where she sat. "The Crown Prince Harry, heir unto the throne, hath sung forth all your praises to our the king, in such emphatic terms that any man would want to see you married to his son. My father, with the wisdom of his years, and all the power of his holy crown, hath four days since made his desire known, that you should be aligned to our great house. I therefore come to ask you, Lady Nell, at his command and to my own delight, if in the greater interest of our land, you would then deign consent to by my wife?"

For a moment Nell stood there in horrified shock, still as a statue staring at him. Jon, for all his talk of his own delight, looked absolutely wretched as he knelt before her, proffering his hand. His hand. Jon's hand. Because, it seemed, Hal in his cocksure wisdom had convinced his father the king to marry the woman he had deflowered, the woman desperately, hopelessly in love with him, unto his brother. 

As the full weight of the absurd horror descended on her, Nell could do nothing but throw back her head and laugh. After a moment of startled shock, a crooked smile split Jon's handsome face and he joined her, laughing until they both were out of breath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do you all think? Will Nell accept Jon's proposal, and does she even have a choice? At least they both seem to grasp the absurdity of the situation. We shall see if Hal as well can find the humor in their plight.


	14. Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon has been gone for weeks, leading Hal to assume the worst. What is the truth of his long absence?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lost electricity for 4 days due to an intense 15 minute storm that struck the city on Tuesday. I am relieved to finally be able to share this chapter with you all!

_Sixteen days!_

The clang of metal upon metal filled the air as the broadsword came down hard on the hastily raised shield.

_More than a fortnight!_

Another mighty whack brought the sergeant-at-arms to his knees with the force of the blow.

_What could possibly be taking so long that two weeks was not enough time for Jon to be back already?_

With a loud crash his opponent's sword went flying from his hands to land on the dirt some feet away.

"My Lord! My Lord, I yield!"

The cry, somewhat desperate as it sounded, brought Hal suddenly back to his senses. Freezing in place with his sword held back to deliver a punishing blow, he shook his head and looked down at the crouching figure of his training partner, arms raised in supplication before him. Dents covered the man's shield, and his breathing was coming in deep, labored gasps. Dimly, Hal realized that he had been moments away from delivering a deadly blow to his friend and erstwhile teacher, all because his mind was far north rather than on present matters.

With a disgusted oath, he threw his sword to the ground and reached out his hand to the other man.

"Hugh, I pray you good man, pardon me," he said in a sheepish voice.

"Who ere 'tis hast thou so enraged, my prince," the gruff man replied with a rueful laugh, "I hope that he is far gone from this place! Else he is like to meet a gruesome fait!"

"The fact that he is far gone from this place, is verily itself cause of my rage," Hal muttered, more to himself than to the other man. "I pray you my friend, mercy once again. I am in no fit state for this our match."

"'Twas no match, sire, much to my living shame. But being that I do care for my life, I must agree to humbly quit the field."

Hal gave an absent nod of his head as the sergeant retrieved his weapon and lumbered his way off the pitch. With a swipe of the back of his hand to push the sweat soaked hair from his eyes, Hal sat heavily on the straw to one side of the open courtyard. Where were they?

Jon should have been back over a week ago. After all, Hal thought, it had been sixteen days since he had seen him off from the city gates, watching him ride away until his horse disappeared around the bend. Jon was an exemplary rider, his squire almost as much so, chosen to accompany Jon in large part for just such reason. It should have taken them no more than three days to reach the cottage on the edge of Arden Wood. Four, at most, if the weather was inclement or the roads had suddenly become problematic in the two days since they had ridden from thence. Why was it taking so long?

How long did it take, he ranted inwardly, to deliver one dearly hoped for edict, offer a reluctant proposal, be sweetly but emphatically denied, and make one's way back to London? Even if Jon had stayed to sup or rest his mount over night, he should have been back within the space of a week, eight days at the outside. It had been twice that time!

Hal was well nigh near to committing flat out treason. His legs itched to leap onto his horse, gallop off to Arden, and discover what, precisely, was keeping Jon so long sequestered away with Nell. Damn his father for forbidding him from accompanying his brother! And damn him double for selecting Jon as the groom.

It had been a long two weeks for both Hal and everyone who was forced to come into contact with him. He had tried to put Jon's reluctant proposal mission out of his head. Truly, he had! He had made his way after his brother's departure to his regular haunt of Eastcheap, hoping to dim the memory of a pair of particularly fine grey eyes with a cup or two of sac and some bawdy companionship. Surely, once he was back among the ribald gathering at the Boars Head he would quickly forget to miss the way Nell had chewed on her lower lip when she was attempting to hide her discomfort, making him want a taste of it himself. The _bon amie_ could not help but drown out the sound of her musical laughter that echoed in his head, or worse, the catch in her voice when she had bidden him leave, convinced that he had betrayed her trust.

It did not turn out to be so. The loud, smelly inn that he usually found vastly diverting seemed irksomely coarse that evening. Antics that would once have had him braying with laughter seemed petty and uninspired, unworthy of his time and attention. Even the women with their low cut bodices and welcoming smiles held no lure for him. He knew he could have them, any or all, if he so wished. He did not. There was only one woman he wanted and she was miles away. Even were she closer, she would not have welcomed him. 

Exiting the training yard, Hal suddenly heard a commotion near the gate. Changing course, his long legs made quick work of distance. From the sound of it, a large party was descending on the castle. Stopping just shy of the open entrance way, he saw an old, almost antique looking carriage being drawn to a halt as a handful of horsemen dismounted around it. 

Instantly, Hal's eyes went to the rider clearly in command. What in the name of St. Christopher was Jon doing with such a contingent? There was no reason for him to be traveling with servants, not unless...

As the carriage door opened, Hal stood in stunned disbelief as Jon extended his hand. A slender arm reached forth from the conveyance, and out stepped Nell, _his Nell_ , in a green dress that left far too much of her lovely _décolletage_ visible where others besides Hal could appreciate it.

What was she doing here? And more to the point, why was she smiling up at Jon of all men as he helped her alight from the carriage? Her feet met the ground and Jon bowed. Nell brought her hand up to his shoulder, stood on her tiptoes, and whispered something into his ear that made Jon blush to the roots of his hair and then laugh with her, eyes locked in a shared secret.

Hal's knuckles were white where they clenched his gloves between them. He could not be seeing what he thought he saw. Jon and Nell exchanging an easy intimacy for all the world to see. It was not possible. And yet, what other reason could she have for being here, but that she had agreed to his damned proposal?

And why shouldn't she agree, he asked himself with a cynical sneer. Jon was no Northumberland, but a Duke of the Blood, a Plantagenet himself, only one step farther from the throne of England than was Hal. Moreover, he was young, handsome, and possessed of a shy charm that had disarmed far more worldly women than she. So what if less than three weeks before she had been in bed with his brother, passionately relinquishing her maidenhood to him with an eager abandon. Apparently that was of no matter to the woman in question, or to Hal's traitorous brother.

With a snarl, he turned away and stormed to his rooms. No, he had decided by the time he arrived at them. He could not blame Nell. For all her intelligence and empathy, she was still naïve, particularly when it came to the ways of men. She would not realize the game that Jon played, the lure that his helpless eyes and soft smile really were. Hal had watched before as women had been lulled into thinking his brother harmless, only for Jon to slowly work his way into their beds. No wonder it had taken so long for him to return!

The fact that Hal had trusted him truly galled. No, he had not _explicitly_ told his brother what had passed between him and Nell, but surely it was obvious? When, after all, had Hal ever gone so out of his way for a woman as to petition his father to intercede in her marriage plans? Jon was not stupid, he must have known of Hal's feelings for Nell!

The thought pulled him up short. He _did not_ have _feelings_ for her! Yes, he admired her. Certainly he found her more than attractive. But feelings involved a deeper connection than that. He had wanted to assist her, that was all. She had saved him from crippling injury, if not death, how could he have done otherwise? Also, they had shared an undeniably intimate night that, being a virgin, should have meant more to her then evidently it did.

He was surprised, that was all. If she wanted to be with Jon, who was he to stand in her way? It was not as though he were offering her marriage himself! Determinedly, he ignored the fact that he had been willing to do just that when the scheme had first been presented to his father the king.

After a quick bath and a change of clothing, Hal emerged to find a page waiting with a message from Jon. His brother, it seemed, awaited him in his chambers to discuss the errand he had just been on. Sending the poor lad scurrying with a glare fit to frighten him from his wits, Hal wrapped himself in his red cloak and as much dignity as he could muster and headed towards his brother's chambers.

He had almost reached the top of the tower stairs where his Jon's rooms were located, when a pair of voices drifted down. Hal recognized the voices as belonging to two of Jon's household, Richard, the squire who had made the journey with him, and Edward who served as his clerk. 

"You should have seen it, Ned, twas such a sight!" Richard was saying as Hal paused around the final bend of the stairs. "For she did set to lure him every way!"

"Our lord the Duke is handsome, tis not new," the more worldly Edward laughed. "And rank will always make a maid's head turn!"

"Aye, but she's no ordinary maid," Richard objected, "and he did act far different than his wont!"

"What, how then be she different, may I ask?" Edward demanded. "A woman is a woman, all the same."

"You have not seen this woman, then speak not," Richard insisted. "So fair of face, and such a figure, Ned! I heard the Duke say he had n'er beheld a beauty that could hold a match to her."

"Why, was he so well caught by pretty eyes?"

"Aye that was he! And much against his will! I heard him say he should not so indulge, that loyalty insisted that he shun her, but that the lady so beguiled him, that he could not resist but to give way and therefore did his baser nature win."

"Well, never did I think to see the day," Edward said wryly.

Hal could stand to hear no more. With steps heavy so that they could not help but hear him, he trudged up the remaining stairs and pushed his way into the room. Quickly jumping to their feet, the two servants gave a quick bow to their prince. Hal didn't stand on ceremony with his own servants, much less his brother's, so they were understandably startled when he snarled out abrupt orders to them to fetch the duke and leave at once. Exchanging quick glances of awe, Dick quickly bolted while Ned poured a large goblet of wine for him and then scurried from the chamber.

Ned lifted the wine and took a long pull from it. So, his Nell was not what he had been led to think. It had been bad enough when he had assumed that Jon had seduced her, but from the sound of Richard's tale, it had been the other way around! Well, he remembered, it had been she who had first come to his room, seeking his carnal attentions. His innocent little darling was nothing more than a grasping strumpet. Once more he felt his blood boil and sought to douse it with his drink.

"Oh, Harry, do come in and bring the wine," his brother called from the inner room, "for we have much and more we must discuss."

Murder in his heart, Hal pushed the door to the inner room open and stormed inside, ready to do violence. The scene that awaited him did nothing to improve his mood. Sitting on a window ledge, fingers idly plucking at a lute in classic romantic pose, was his turn coat brother. And there, on a low stool near to his feet, was none other than the siren who had managed to seduce them both.

"I think, Hal, that you know my bride-to-be," Jon said with a crooked grin and a gesture towards Nell, who at least had the grace to blush and turn away her eyes. "I hope that you'll be first to wish us well."

"I will say only you deserve each other," Hal seethed, looking from one of them to the other, the two people he had trusted most. "No more can I extend you at this time."

Nell's face turned an odd white color as his words registered, and Jon stared at him as though he were daft. 

"Perhaps I did mistake your feelings quite," Jon said slowly, searching Hal's face, "but thought I you'd be glad to have her here."

"Here in your rooms, you mean? How could I not," he sneered, hating them and himself in equal measure. "And now I hope you will excuse me, ma'am. No doubt you have a wedding to discuss, and I care not to witness your new joy."

"You said that I was wrong, that he did care," Nell said, looking at Jon, with quite, devastation that did painful things to Hal's heart despite his willing it to ice. 

"He does, by faith! I know not what this is!" Jon insisted, glaring at his brother. "What mean you, Harry, by this freakish start? Why, you yourself sent me to get the maid!"

"And you did get her, I salute you Jon," he toasted with the dregs of his wine.

"Oh ho, is that the tune which you do sing?" Jon at last gave a bark of laughter that grated sharply on Hal's ears. "You faithless dog to think so mean of me! Good Lady, worry not, he is but bit by green eyed jealousy if I ere not. Dear God above Hal, I should ring your bell to think that ever I would serve you thus!"

"By jealousy? Of who? What do you mean?" Nell looked utterly confused, and utterly adorable as her eyes flickered between the two of them. The pain in Hal's chest was almost unbearable as he looked at her, so beautiful and so at sea.

"Why Nell, he thinks that you have thrown him o'er," Jon grinned with a smugness that made Hal's fist long to connect with his face, "and have transferred your loyalty to me."

"What? Is that what you think? If so, my prince," the words were said with crisp scorn as she leapt to her feet, fire blazing in her eyes adding to her striking good looks, "I thank you, I shall be the one to leave! I came here at great pleading from the duke, against my better judgement, might I add, because he seemed to think cared for me. But if you hold me more true than that, that I would be so quick to cast my eye upon another days after you left, and he your brother therefore so much worse, then I do want no more to do with you!" 

With a proud tilt of her chin Nell glared at him one last time and walked determinedly towards the door. Hal stared at her for a moment in complete bewilderment, before catching the ironic amusement in his brother's face. After a moment that seemed to stretch forever as she made for the exit, he suddenly sprang to life, crossing the room in one stride and barring her escape.

She had almost left, he realized as he stared into her fathomless eyes. Almost walked out the door forever, taking his heart with her. He could not let that happen. He knew not what had brought her here, or what did exist between her and Jon, but in that moment Hal knew he could not let her leave him.

"I prithee, move aside and let me go," she commanded with the tone of an empress.

"Never within this life time, nor beyond," he swore, arm finding its way around her. "Forgive me, Nell my sweet, for I ran mad, thinking you chose another over me."

"You never were a choice for me, my lord," she told him bluntly, eyes not meeting his. "You are the prince and subject to your rank."

"I am the future king, and by such right, rank and all else are subject then to me!" he insisted, refusing to let her go. "But tell me darling, putting that aside, if I was nothing more than simple Hal, the man that you did rescue in the wood and tend to with such gentle, loving care, do you think you could find it in your heart, to take me into yours and keep me there?"

"You know the answer, sir, why ask me this? I never would have slipped into your bed if you had not first slipped into my heart."

"I think, perhaps, my presence is _de trop_ ," Jon chose that moment to rise, giving Hal a grin and making for the door. "I trust you two can see to things from here?"

"Yes, leave at once, and there's a good lad, Jon," Hal told him, eyes not leaving Nell's face. "And come not back for many a long hour."

"Hal!" Nell said in a squeak, face going crimson, "these are his rooms, you cannot drive him hence!"

"Nay, worry not, my dear, for I must go," Jon reassured her with a chuckle. "I have my own appointment I must keep."

"Please Jon, tell me no more, I beg of you," Nell cringed. "I do not even like to think of it!"

"What means all this, and while I think to ask," Hal said, puzzled, "why think your men that you have been bewitched? The way they talked of it convinced me quite that you had fallen to my sweet love's charms."

"Ah, that explains your temper, now I see," Jon said. "No Hal, a different siren draws me forth, though they share the self same witch's blood. Farewell you two, I come not back tonight!"

And with a jaunty salute Jon was out the door. Hal stared at Nell's abashed face for a moment before realization suddenly dawned on him.

"You do not mean to say... it can not be..." Hal began, unable to say the words as laughter bubbled within him.

"I fear it is, now God please help poor Jon," Nell sighed. "Many hours have they two spent alone."

"He will make you a loving father, Nell," Hal grinned as she cringed. "God help poor Jon indeed, the hopeless fool. But now enough of them, for I do find, a desperate need to kiss you Nell my love."

And suiting word to action, Hal lowered his mouth to hers, and for the first time in weeks, he finally felt at peace.


	15. Reunited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hal and Nell celebrate being back together in the most intimate of ways.

Nell knew she should be angry with Hal, and she was. She was angry with him for lying to her about his identity, about so misreading the situation with his father the King that Jon ended up proposing to her, and certainly not least for believing she could so quickly have transferred her affections to his brother. Did he know her so ill, even after all of the time they had spent together, that he believed she could be so faithless? Or so callus as to throw her relationship with Jon in his face even if the two of them were carrying on a love affair?

All of this gave her ample reason to be furious with the so offending prince, but as his arms wrapped around her and his lips descended to hers for a kiss as tender as it was intoxicating, all of those reasons flew from her brain. All she knew, all she cared about, was that she was back in Hal's embrace, where she had feared she would never be again.

As he deepened the kiss, Nell sighed and opened her mouth to him. He had grown whiskers in his time apart from her, russet gold framing his lower face, and the soft scratch contrasted intriguingly with his lips and tongue. Her hands went up to the curls she so loved at the nape of his neck, sliding into the thick waves still wet from his recent bath.

"My love," he said, moving his head slightly to kiss her jaw and neck, "I feared to never taste you more. Your lips bewitch me Nell, and make me drunk with want for you as I have never know."

He wanted her still. He had said it. Yes, his actions clearly indicated it was so, but she had been in so much doubt that hearing him say the words was water to her parched heart. After all she had done to convinced herself that he could not care, not in this way, it was bliss.

Jon had done his best to assure her. When the younger Plantagenet prince had made his proposal, Nell's reaction had been to burst into gales of laughter. For one thing, never had she seen a more unenthusiastic groom. For all he professed himself delighted, Jon had looked as though he was hours away from the gallows. Still, it was perhaps not the most politic thing to laugh at his proposal, and she had been relieved when after a startled moment he had joined her.

"Oh do get up, your grace, I beg of you!" she had implored him. "And say to me from whence this madness comes. We two have only one brief moment met, and I with no false modesty can say you surely did not find me at my best. I must therefore be filled with certitude this new professed urge to marry me did not originate in thy own heart."

"My lady, you are wise as you are fair," Jon had said, getting himself under control as he rose to sit on the bench next to her. "My father, having once been made to see the danger in allowing you to wed unto Northumberland, friend to his foes, did fear that if he did forbid the match your cousin, the French king, might take it ill. He therefore thought it good that he provide a suitable replacement for your hand."

"I see," she had taken a moment to digest. "And how, if I be bold to ask, came good King Henry by this piece of news? I did not think that word of the intent to join our household to Northumberland had spread beyond the principals involved."

She had known the answer, of course, but she wanted to hear him say it. For some reason, it seemed to matter to her greatly.

"My brother, ma'am, the royal Prince of Wales, did rush to tell our father of the news. He thought, as did we all, that such a match was not in England's favor, nor in yours."

"For my part, yes of course, the prince was right," she had allowed. "So that was how he sought to set me free. Oh, clever man, too clever for my good. And so you were sent here to be the lamb, a sacrifice to England's greater good. A most amusing twist, you must admit, to all but we who must now live with it." 

Jon's look at her had been enigmatic, troubling her for a moment. With a gasp, she had realized that he mistook her intent and sought quickly to ease his mind.

"Not that, good sir, I mean to say you yes. I am not so unfeeling as all that. You may go back and tell the mighty king that he need fear no problem with the French. I am content that I remain unwed, though I am duly honored you should ask."

"I had suspected you would say as much," Jon had replied, "and at the first did think that would be best. But lady, there are forces here at play beyond your own sweet self and what you wish. For could you swear to me that there be none, related unto you by nearest blood, who might attempt to seek in your behalf an intersession from the king of France?"

From the look on his face, Nell had known that Hal must have imparted to him the humiliating details of her intended liaison with Northumberland. He had been correct, of course. While Nell herself would never complain to King Charles about the end of her betrothal, she could not say the same for her mother. No, Elouise had always been a favorite with her cousin. She would be angry, bitterly so, at intersession from the English king. Who better to turn to than France? 

"You can not wish, your grace, despite all that," Nell had looked at Jon with pity, "to go along with this your father's plan."

"Fair lady, were it not for one small thing, I feel I could quite easily content to marry with so sweet a maid as you."

"One thing, i'faith, you are a liar, sir!" Nell had laughed, blushing to be called a maid. "For I could name to you a score of flaws!"

"Oh, everyone doth have a flaw or two," Jon had shrugged, "and few sons of a king marry for love. I surely never thought that I would so. No lady, if it were we two alone, I'd happ'ly to the altar now to wed. However, I do find that I am fond of both my brother's heart and my own skin. And neither do I think would long survive if I should seek to claim you for my own."

"Your brother's heart? I think that you misjudge," Nell had said bitterly, hating the flash of hope that had stirred within her. 

"My Lady Nell, I've known him all my life. Believe me in what I now say to you. For years I have seen Harry run about with women from the tavern and the court, but never through out all his wild affairs have I seen what I now see in his eyes. The road from here to London spans three days, and for all of that time he drew no breath but that his mind did fixate all on you. I know not what went on within these walls, no secrets did he share with me of you. That in itself is passing strange for him. But I do know that when he says your name, his voice doth soften and his eyes do smile. And if some foolish rascal were to speak a single word that might besmirch your name, the anger Hal would show out-blazed the sun. In this, you may believe me to my shame. My erstwhile swollen jaw doth tell the tale."

"Could it be true what you now speak to me?" Nell had asked in amazement. "For I did think the prince but dallied here, and sought me out only to pass the time."

"It maybe that he did begin that way," Jon had allowed. "I fear it would be like unto his wont. But be that as it may I have no doubt somewhere along the path his heart did change. And now there is no question in my mind that my dear brother, Harry, Prince of Wales, is fallen over ears in love with you."

Her head rang with the joy of that sentence. Could it possibly be true? The very possibility had sustained her through those two long weeks. The mere hope that her time with Hal was more than passing tryst had been enough to bring the spark back to Nell's soul.

Quickly a plan had been devised between Nell and Jon. Elouise could obviously not be trusted. Should Nell refuse Jon outright, she would surely write at once to the French king and demand retribution for the abortive betrothal. She would, therefore, need to be appeased. The best way for this to happen was for Nell and Jon to announce their proposal, and their intention to depart at once for London. The fact that through this plan Nell would also be reunited with Hal, able to see for herself if Jon spoke true, did much to overcome her reluctance to enter into a sham engagement.

Unfortunately, appeasing Elouise meant that she would, perforce, be accompanying them. She was already missing out on a cozy nest with her would-be lover, she would not miss out on the royal court as well. It was Jon and Nell's hope that once in London and surrounded by the swirl of life there she would forget her disappointment in the thwarted engagement. Once she had put all hopes of Northumberland behind her, Nell would be free to release Jon from his obligation to her. What would become of her from thence, she had no fixed idea, but at least it would solve the immediate problems.

Had it been up to Nell they would have left that very night. She was never one to sit on a plan once it had been hatched. Elouise, however, would not hear of it. Preparations must be made for the entire household to journey to the capital. This meant repairs to her antique carriage, hiring of horses, more emergency dressmaking for both Nell and herself, and the packing up of what seemed a ludicrous amount of belongings. 

To Nell's combined horror and amusement, Elouise had designated Jon her lackey for all of the above, and sent the royal duke running on errand after errand to secure their needs. Jon seemed bemused at first, clearly in awe of the older woman, but by no means used to being so ordered about. It had not taken long, though, for her mother to win in that battle of wills, and before he knew what had happened he was waiting hand and foot on the lady. 

Nell should not have been surprised to round a corner one day and find his Grace of Gloucester in a passionate embrace with her mother. She had seen the way his eyes drifted towards her, and certainly knew the signs that her mother was seeking to ensnare an unsuspecting prey. And yet when she stumbled upon them in the hall one day, her mother pressed against the wall by a strong young body, she had shrieked and dropped the pile of linen she was carrying. It was difficult to say who had been most embarrassed, but it certainly had not been Elouise, who had looked like the cat who swallowed the cream.

Nell could not really blame her mother. There was nothing better, she had learned, than being kissed by a man who knew how. That truth was being reinforced to her now as Hal returned his mouth to hers, this time with a hunger that went beyond tenderness.

"Tell me you still want me, Nell my sweet," he demanded, edging her back towards the bed that she had been all to aware of. "Tell me that my sins are not too great, and that I still possess a piece of you."

"If by a piece you mean all of myself," she gasped, tumbling backwards onto Jon's bed in Hal's arms, "then yes, my lord, it still belongs to you."

"Oh god, how I have hungered for your touch," he groaned, hands struggling to unlace the back of her dress. "To feel your naked skin pressed up to mine. To have you writhing under me in bed!"

"I never thought you'd want me so again," she admitted, as he at last freed her from her ties.

"Not want you? I want nothing else in life!" he said, tugging at her dress to bring it over her head. "These days without you I have quite gone mad. The thought that any man, no matter who, be it my brother or Northumberland, might one day look on you as I have done, and know the sweet delights your body holds, drove me almost to murder for your sake. For you belong to me, and me alone. I'll brook no other suitor to your hand."

"And does that mean, my Hal that you are mine?" she bravely asked, fearing yet needing to know the worst. "I know tis not your nature to be true unto a single woman at a time."

"Ah, Nell, you charge me with my prior sins, and I, alas, confess it hath been so. But since my eyes did first behold your face no other has the faintest charm for me. I want no other woman in my bed, but only you alone, I swear to you!"

Hal's mouth descended on her breasts where they overflowed her painfully confining corset, sucking on them as though they gave him life and marking her delicate skin with the coarseness of his beard. She could feel his arousal, hard against her leg, and allowed her hands to wander down his body, relearning the shape of him.

Growling as her hands squeezed his buttocks, Hal pulled himself away from her and ripped his tunic off over his head, followed shortly by his boots and hose. While he did so, Nell quickly devested herself of the rest of her underdress and corset, desperately missing the simplicity of her usual raiment. Hal's eyes went dark at the sight of her exposed flesh, and any lingering doubt she might have had fled her mind as his pounced on her.

He was everywhere, sucking, squeezing, biting, enveloping her in his embrace. Nell let her own inhibitions fly and wrapped her legs around his waist, pushing her wet center against his body. She needed him desperately, needed to feel him fill that empty space inside her that had haunted her since he had left. His own need, almost feral in its intensity, caused him rut against her, coating his straining cock in the slick seeping from her.

When at last he lined his head up with her entrance and pushed his way inside, Hal had only just enough presence of mind left to smother their combined cries with a searing kiss. He had not prepared her this time as he had before, and for a moment Nell thought that she would be split in half as he snapped his hips furiously, thrusting into her at a breakneck pace. Fortunately, her own arousal lent enough lubrication that she soon adjusted to the intrusion and began to loose herself to the bliss as he pounded her into the mattress, half intelligible words of praise falling from his lips.

"Say you love me, Nell, and me alone," he pleaded as his thrusts began to get sloppy.

"I love you Hal, I love you my sweet prince," she all but screamed.

With a triumphant grin he brought his hand to her clit and began rubbing her in time with his hips. A moment later, she came undone around him, clamping down and milking his own orgasm as he spilled his seed within her. The air filled with moans and the smell of sex as they road out the pleasure, connecting in the most intimate way possible.

At last, sated for the moment, Hal rolled onto his side, bringing her with him in the curve of his arm.

"And I love you, my Nell of Arden Wood," he told her, and kissed her once more with that same aching tenderness as he had the first time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is a bit shorter than usual. I was distracted by Jack Linden, who snuck into my brain and insisted I write a filthy one shot about him. I promise there will be more next time!


	16. A Pack of Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hal and Nell have different ideas of how they should proceed.

Hal lay on the bed, wonderfully sated, running Nell’s silky hair through his long fingers as her eyes fluttered open to meet his.

“I hope your sleep was peaceful, my sweet Nell,” he said smugly, “you did for certs do much to earn your rest.”

“I do feel more more at peace, I must confess,” she sighed, her naked body stretching languidly, much to his enjoyment. “But now that we have that out of the way -"

Her hand shot out and slapped him full force across the face, stunning him completely.

“How dare you think that I could serve you thus?” 

Hal reeled backwards, a startled laugh bursting from his lips as his hand raised to gingerly touch his stinging cheek. For so small a woman, she had managed to put quite a bit of power into the slap. He suspected that he was not the first man to have felt the fire of her wrath, and he silently commiserated with those who had come before him.

"I jest not Hal, your doubting did me wrong," she insisted, face puckering up in irritation over his laughter.

She looked such an incongruous sight, tussled hair billowing around her in a cloud down to her hips, fair skin showing marks of his passion from her long neck to her dimpled thighs. Her lips were still red and swollen from the ferocity of his kisses. And yet for all of those signs of wanton pleasure, those lips were drawn down in a moue of discontent, her eyes accusatory as they looked at him. It was all he could do not to start chuckling again at the juxtaposition.

"It did my love, and I have no excuse," he confessed, hanging his head contritely. "All I can do is plead my madness, Nell, over the thought that any other man, yay, even my own brother in this case, should think to claim my goddess for his own."

"But it was you who set the game in play," she pointed out. "Jon told me how you went unto the king and pressed him to deny my marriage pact. If you had simply left things as they were, our actions could have had the same result. I would not have revealed 'twas you I loved, simply that I no longer was a maid."

Hal smiled at her, so willing to take all of the shame upon her own slender shoulders. In truth, he did not deserve so valiant a lady. Not that he intended to let that keep him from having her of course.

"I could not bear to see you brought so low," he told her truthfully, "who are the truest person I do know. To carry on your breast forever more the stigma of a loose, immodest jade? To never hope to wed as you deserve? Such a sad fate should never come to you."

"But even one as far removed as I from normal workings of King Henry's court could easily predict how he would act," she pointed out crossly. "All know he dare not risk a war with France, not when the Welsh and Scotts seek to rebel. It therefore be but logical that he should seek a different suitor for my hand!"

"You say tis clear to all, yet 'twas not so," Hal smiled at his clever girl. "For Jon had no idea what was in store. You are, my dear, far smarter than is he."

"How cruel of you to lead him thus to doom, when he, an innocent, did trust in you, and only thought to lend you his support!" she ignored the compliment tenaciously to chide him.

"Be warry Nell, for if you take his part, I might begin to hate him once again," Hal warned, only half in jest. "I am not the cruel brother you do think. It should be more than obvious by now I did not wish the role to fall on Jon. I had a different groom for you in mind, one who be far more pleasing to my taste."

"Indeed, and what poor nobleman was that?" she demanded. "Who was to play the cuckold to our love?"

"Why see you not who are so swift of thought? My love, I thought to marry you myself!"

Nell stared at Hal as though she did not believe her own ears. He could not decided whether to be amused or offended, settled on a strange hybrid of both. Was the idea really so abhorrent to her? True, it had taken him a few days to come to grips with the decision himself, but once he had it seemed such an obvious solution that he could not believe she had not reached the same conclusion.

"It is not kind to jest in such a way," she said at last, voice sounding raw with tightly held emotion. 

"I do not jest. I'd be your husband, Nell," he told her, dropping all humor, all teasing from his eyes that she might see the sincerity of his words.

"Tis guilt that prompts you to declare yourself," she said after a moment, "it speaks well to your honor, I confess. But Hal, there is no cause for such a course, your sacrifice is needless now to make."

"Sacrifice my love? Why say you that?"

"Just listen to me now, I have a plan," she began speaking rapidly, "and Jon is willing to abide by it. Your brother loves you well, my dearest lord, and has grown fond of me in these past weeks. He also, though it makes to me no sense, does truly seem to dote upon _ma mere_. And Hal, for all that in my life I've seen the countless men with whom she'd flirt and court, yet never have I once beheld her eyes look so with love as they do now on Jon. How then, if we go forward with this match. When I am safely married unto him who hath no interest in my own scant charms, but can be happ'ly sated in his home by she that comes along with his new married wife, why then who would have cause to look askance if I should sometimes slip into your bed until the day that you do tire of me? So should we all scrape happily along, and not endure the wrath of either king."

Hal drew back from her as she spoke. The plan that she proposed, so similar to the one that her mother and Northumberland would have thrust her into, struck him with unallayed horror. The very idea that she would go along with such a scheme, much less suggest it to him, showed how desperate events had made her. 

"Hear me Nell, and heed what I do say," he told her in a voice that brooked no disobedience. "I never want to hear such plan again. You do yourself a wrong, and me as well, not mentioning our family in all. A thing or two I think escaped your mind as you did formulate your little scheme. What, say, are we expected then to do when nature as it does doth take its course and plants within your womb a child of mine? Is Jon to have my bastard as his heir? Am I to watch another raise my child, content to be an uncle in their life?"

"We can be careful that there is no babe..." she began, but he cut her off, anger growing now.

"And tell me, sweet, what then shall come of you on that day which perforce must soon arrive when I must also seek to make a match? Shall I expect my wife to go along with this, your little tawdry family plan?"

"By then you may not even want me, Hal," she said miserably, looking down at her hands.

"Stop! By all the saints, stop this at once!" he exploded. "Why do you thus insist I'll tire of you?"

"The world at large doth know your habits, love," she shrugged, voice barely above a whisper. "Why should I hope that I should different be?"

"You are no trollop I bought for a coin," he growled at her, "nor some bored lady drawn towards my crown. You wondered why I told you not my name? Or let you know that I was royalty? How many think you that I take to bed are there because they seek to be with _me_? They are the same Nell, each and every one! All grasping sycophants looking to rise. But when you smiled at me, it was at _Hal_ , at _I myself_ and not my princely state. These weeks we have been parted I was wrecked. I ached for you as I n'er have before for any soul alive upon this earth. And yes, I will admit it was in part for your sweet body lying under me. The bliss that I have found with you in bed is not to be belittled nor dismissed. But as the days progressed I then did find I missed our conversations just as much. Missed arguing with you over the Welsh, or how much duty one doth owe their king. I missed your teasing, and your mocking me. Missed all the energy which you do bring to each and every task that you pursue. In short, look you, I do not only seek to have you as my mistress for some time. I do intend that you shall be my wife, and will accept no other end but this."

Nell's eyes as she looked up at him were suspiciously wet, and he could tell that she was exerting all of her control to keep from weeping. He could only hope that they were happy tears attempting to fall. He had not meant to burden her with all of this now. She was newly come, and must still be accustoming herself to the idea of being at court. It was simply that he refused to hear her value herself at so low a rate. 

"Why look you now distraught, oh mistress mine?" he asked, raising one of her hands to his lips.

"Not blind am I to how you honor me," she said carefully. "You know, I think, that I do love you Hal."

"Then say to me that you will be my wife," he replied simply, turning over her hand and kissing her palm.

"But here is then the trap if I say so," she swallowed, and he felt her pulse speed up as he kissed her wrist. "That would mean I one day would be queen."

"Aye, that you would, you see the matter right," he was at her elbow now, gently licking the inside with his tongue. "Though Heaven keep that day far off from now."

"Nay, Hal, think you! I cannot be the queen! For I am not a creature of the court. My life is in the wild and in the woods. I know nothing of gowns and crowns and things."

"You once again do disavow your worth," he told her, kissing the crook of her neck. "For while I was guest within your house I had the opportunity to see the way you handled all within your care. Not one of those who looked to you for rule were ever once mistreated or denied. You saw to all the running of the purse, the feeding of your people and the poor. You tended to a stranger left for dead, you healed him with a doctor's very skill. Now tell me if you will, my little love, what part of that sits not well with a queen? Who has to tend to all her nation's hurts and help her king remember to be kind."

"Your father will not let it come to be," she said, moaning a bit as he sucked a bruise into her neck.

"My father is on pilgrimage for now. Tis fifteen years since his first wife did die, my own sweet mother, Heaven rest her soul, and he has gone to pay his just respects unto her tomb where she does lie in Leeds. We have then, oh my heart, some little time to come up with a way to thwart his will."

She was kissing him back now, arms encircling his back and fingers running over his heated skin. How this woman believed he would ever tire of her he knew not. 

"I am content to see what you devise," she said on a gasp, as he brought her to straddle his lap.

"I have a house upon the river Thames," he told her, grinding up into her with his now hard cock. "Tis where I most stay when I am at court, and often Jon doth join me there as well. A smaller dwelling on that self same block is at your service while you do stay here, for you and all your household there to lodge. As your supposed intended stays with me, no one will therefore think aught is amiss if you are often seen in my abode."

"You think of everything, my brilliant prince," she praised him, as he lifted her up and positioned her above him. "I put myself into your loving haaaaaandssss!" she screamed out as he slowly lowered her onto him, making the impalement last so that she felt every last inch filling her up.

"A fool to think I'd ever tire of this," he groaned as he thrust up into her. "As like to tire of heaven as of you. Now ride me, Nell, queen ever of my heart."

It took her a moment to become comfortable with the position, and at first her rocking atop him was more timid and testing than passionate. But as she began to find rhythm, Nell's natural adventurousness came out, and he watched in adoration as she rode him, head tilted back to expose her neck. He wasted no time in claiming it, wrapping her hair tightly around his fist as he did. Her nails scratched down his back as she quickened her paces, and his free hand helped to guide her hips in their motion up and down his thrusting cock. He felt her muscles stiffen as she bent even farther back, mouth parted in a soundless cry as she came, flooding him with her release.

He quickly tipped her over so that he was lying above her, her legs still tightly wound around him, and pistoned into her, grunting with exertion. When he finally came inside her he was slick with sweat, desperate with urge to find his way as deep within her walls as possible, there to mark her as his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full disclosure - I do not know where Henry IV's first wife was buried, or what her exact date of death was.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! It will be interesting to see what they come up with!


	17. Excursions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nell experiences all the delight of London, both in and out of Hal's bed, until an old acquaintance makes trouble for the happy couple.

A house. That was what Hal had called his residence on the Thames. Nell smiled as she looked around the courtyard in which they now waited for their horses. Their entire cottage in Arden would fit into this one area. It was a palace, plain and simple. The house he had set her up in was only slightly less expansive. Even her servants had servants here in London. Maude was even now attempting retrain all of them in order to rid them of their "shoddy city bred habits". 

She was enjoying herself, she had to admit. Even though a sense of unreality colored all of her hours these past few weeks, still it was good dream in which she lived. Hal was the soul of chivalry during the day, escorting her about London. Of course Jon and Elouise accompanied them to keep up pretenses. But it was Hal who helped her to mount (as if she ever needed it!), when they went out for a ride. Hal who offered her his arm as they strolled down the river bank, leading her deftly around piles of refuse lest she dirty her shoes. Hal who led her into the figures when they danced. He was always unfailing polite, never over-reaching the bounds of what a dutiful brother-in-law might do.

At night, it was different. At night, when the rest of Hal's household was asleep, he would take her to his bed. Then, all thought of propriety, indeed, all thought of the world outside that room, was swept away. The universe existed solely of Hal and of herself in the hours when the sky was dark. 

Nell had never realized all the myriad ways two people might come together in love. She intentionally did not dwell on how Hal had learned all of them, preferring to think it was his boundless imagination and enthusiasm for exploration that had made him such an inventive lover. He certainly had explored all of her. There was not a inch of her body, she thought, that he had not thoroughly lavished with attention. In turn, she had shed any lingering shyness and met him with a passion of her own.

She smiled, thinking of that very morning. She had woken up, as she did most mornings, with her head resting atop Hal's chest, his strong arm holding her fast. She found the soft rise and fall from his breathing endearingly soothing, and for a time simply allowed her fingers to play gently with his soft whirl of chest hair. Soon though, her fingers had drifted south, following the thin trail that hair made to the deep vee of his hips. Hal had fidgeted a bit as her fingers ghosted over his lower abdomen, and had loosened his grip enough that she was able shimmy out of his embrace. Inching down the bed, she situated herself so that her face was even with his beautiful, erect cock. She had never imagined a cock could be beautiful before, and yet, somehow his was.

Tentatively at first, Nell had let her tongue dart out to run up the length of it. Hal had given a soft moan, but remained in his fitful sleep. Smiling, she had leaned forward and kissed the tip, enjoying the way his hips pressed up of their own volition. When she at last took him into her mouth, running her tongue around the base of his head, a large hand had found her hair. Nell had hummed in contentment and lowered herself down on him, slowly taking in as much as she could, hand clasping around the rest to make up the difference.

She could tell the moment he had woken up; his hand had tightened almost painfully in her hair. Eyes flashing up at him, she continued to move up and down his length, sucking gently as did. Hal had looked back at her, blue eyes black with lust, lower lip caught between his teeth as he watched her. Nell had moved her second hand instinctively to fondle his balls, and Hal swore as she gave a hard suck as she did.

"For love of heaven, sweet, do stop now," he had groaned as she flashed him a cheeky grin. "I swear, my love, no man hath ever known a more delightful way to start the day than to be woken by such loving care. You are a witch, and hath ensnared my soul. And I would not for heaven have it else."

Nell had preened under his praise, redoubling her efforts. She love the noises he made, deep and guttural, as she took increasingly more into her mouth. When he at last gripped her hair tightly again, spilling into her mouth, he had sounded as though his soul was indeed being pulled from his body.

"A penny for your thoughts, my dearest love," he said now, looking at her with a smirk that said he knew all too well where her mind had strayed.

"I fear I cannot sell so cheap as that," she grinned impishly at him. "My thoughts demand a princely ransom sir."

"Such a demanding wench I have unleashed," he laughed, chucking her under the chin. "Ah, here's your mare, now up you get my love."

Hal's hands had drifted low as he lifted her effortlessly and set her atop her saddle. The strength he had, now that he had fully healed, never failed to astonish her. When she had finished with him this morning, it had only taken a matter of minutes before he was lifting her up with one arm while with his other hand he positioned his already re-hardened cock and thrust up inside her. The cold, stone wall of his chamber had felt rough against her back as he took her against it. She could still feel a few bruises near her shoulders from when they came together, but they were small price to pay for the pleasure that had caused them.

They rode, along with the oddly suited couple of her mother and his brother, to the market that was set on fare days just beyond the city gates. Once there, the princes left the horses happily grazing under the watchful eyes of two of their servants and escorted the women to peruse all of the delights of the market.

Elouise, of course, was attracted to all of the stalls selling pretties - ribbons dyed in colors impossible to get near their home, bolts of cloth woven of exquisitely soft thread, even small jewels found their way into the waiting arms of the servants sent to aid them. For Nell, it was the more practical wares that caught her attention. While she was superiorly disdainful of most of the medicinal packets, there were a few spices, and some well worked pieces of leather for gloves that caught her eye.

At one stall she found a small dagger engraved with a lion rampart, a symbol of the Plantagenets, on the blade. Looking around to make sure that Hal was engaged some distance away haggling with a merchant, Nell quickly requested the knife and a blood red hip sheath to go with it. Hal had given her so much, she wanted to surprise him with a small token of her own.

Smiling as she turned away from the table and slipped the dagger into the basket over her arm, Nell found herself colliding with a large body moving its way towards the vendor. A beefy hand came up to steady her, and she looked up into a pair of close set brown eyes shot with red lines in a puffy face. The wave of recognition hit her, and she tried to move away from the man, but his grip on her arm held her fast.

"Well what is this, shall I believe my eyes?" his voice purred, said eyes traveling up and down her length. "Come, little Nell, hath not a smile for me?"

"I pray you sir, release me from your grasp," she said, glancing over her shoulder to where Hal was finishing up his transaction. "I have nothing for you, as well you know."

"Now Nell, is that a way to greet a family friend?" the Earl of Kent demanded, pretending affront. "But tell me, girl, what brings you far from home? Why be you not with old Northumberland? I heard that you and he were to be wed."

"Your information doth be old, my lord," she said, struggling in vain to free herself. "The wedding is no longer set to be. Now prithee, let me go, or I do swear, our last encounter will seem sweet to thee compared for that which will befall thee next!"

She watched with satisfaction as he remembered the incident with the chamber pot. When his eyes darkened, however, she feared she may have let her anger run away from her. His fingers began to bite into her arm painfully, and his smile grew decidedly unpleasant.

"Ho ho, so then the Earl hath learnt the truth," he taunted. "How narrow an escape the man hath had, not so to be entangled with a shrew! Alas poor Nell, I see I spoke aright when I did swear your fate was spinsterhood. For what man would be wedded to a bitch who never hath been trained not to bite."

"If I be such a leper, let me go!" she insisted. "Why wouldst thou then waste time with such as me?"

"Your tongue be sharp, but I could silence that," he suggested, eyeing her mouth in a way that made her stomach turn. "If you should find one day you rue the path that led you to so celibate a life, come find me and if you can curb your tongue, I may take pity on your spinsterhood."

Nell opened her mouth to spit at Kent when a shadow suddenly fell over the two of them. Glancing up quickly from where she had been watching his hand on her arm, she saw Hal looming behind her, a head taller than the other man at whom he glared.

"Why Kent, what is it that doth go on here?" Hal asked in a deceptively mild voice. 

Nell could feel the tension in her love's body as his eyes trained themselves on the hand clutching her, but Kent seemed oblivious to it.

"Prince Harry, I did not think to see you here!" he laughed amiably. "This market seems a little tame for you."

"Madam, is there ought I can do for you?" Hal asked her, stepping infinitesimally closer.

"Don't bother Hal, you be wasting your time," Kent sneered. "This hell cat, though she might be fair of face, be yet not worth the bother she doth cause. I learned that lesson to my own remorse once when I sought a sample of her charms."

All of Hal's coiled energy released itself in a backhanded blow that landed soundly on the Earl of Kent's jaw. As he stumbled back, releasing Nell at last, he still managed to keep to his feet, staring at Hal as though he were a lunatic. Hal, for his part, drew Nell hard against his body, arm going protectively around her as he stared down the other man.

"You will sir, now apologize at once!" he demanded through clenched teeth. 

"Apologize unto a feral bitch?" Kent spat out, along with a bit of blood. "Not, I, I thank you so, my lord and prince."

"Apologize unto my fiance!" Hal corrected him, "and also unto England's future queen!"

"England's queen? What? Danbury's little brat? I'll not believe it, it cannot be so!"

"And yet, you'll find it very much be true," Jon said, coming up to stand belatedly next to Hal.

"How dost thou, love? Did he do harm to you?" Hal asked her solicitously, caressing her arm where Kent had grabbed her.

"No harm done Hal, the man is simply air, and hath not in him substance to cause harm."

"Well, Kent, I have not yet to hear the words," Hal said icily, looking back at Kent. "Do I perhaps, then need to call you out? Jon you, I trust, will second me need be?"

"Of course I shall, what say Kent? The swords?" Jon asked, voice equally frigid.

"You all are crazy, each and every one!" Kent swore, looking from Jon to Hal to Nell. When he saw that none of them were going to budge, he made a sweeping court bow that was in itself a sort of insult, and smiled unctuously at Nell. "Forgive me, Lady Eleonore, my slight."

"Granted, now may we move on from here?" she asked, looking around at the large group of people from all stations of life who had gathered around to watch. 

"One moment, love, and I will take you home," Hal said, kissing her hand. "The lady may forgive you your words Kent, but know that I am not so easily won. If I do hear of any future time when you so much as speak her name aloud, my challenge will I once more charge to you. And I believe that you and I both know that if we two were ever come to fight, you, sir, would never leave the field alive. Now get you gone, your sight doth plague mine eyes."

"I'll not forget this, you may count on that," Kent snarled, and stormed away, snapping for his retainers to follow.

" _Ma fille, ma chere_ , what a to do was here!" Elouise keened, wafting over to fuss over Nell. "That _chevalier_ , he always was a brute. I liked not that mon Robert friended him. But Hal, _mon Dieu_! What did you go and say? I fear that you have gave the game away!"

"She doth speak true, you have stepped in it, Hal," Jon shook his head. "For we all know that word of this will spread. By this time on the morrow the world will know that you do seek to marry Eleonore."

"Then let them know, for by that time of day, I do mean that the marriage shall take place."

"Hal, we cannot you know it must not be!" Nell insisted.

"Perhaps, _ma ange_ , this is not here the time," Elouise suggested, looking about them once more. "Come, let us home and sort out all this mess."

It was in much different spirits that they made the ride back to Hal's palace in London. Nell was torn. On the one hand, she had felt such exhilaration when Hal had come to her defense against Kent. The man had been her nemesis since her brother Robert had first brought him home. He shifted effortlessly from mocking her to seeking liberties, and Nell had become heartily sick of the game. Hal's insistence that he apologize had been a balm for years of abuse. 

On the other hand, the idea of a sudden, clandestine marriage was unthinkable. The King had decreed that she marry Jon! How could Hal so cavalierly go against his father's wishes? It would be a declaration of defiance, and while Hal had made a life of small infractions, this would be greater than all the rest put together.

No one spoke of Hal's preposterous idea, indeed, no one spoke at all, until they arrived back some time later. Once more, Elouise surprised Nell by moving to arrange things, suggesting that the men see to the stabling of the mounts while she and Nell abjure to freshen up. Nell would have protested, things needed to be discussed! But the look her mother threw at her was enough to hold her tongue.

" _Ma belle_ , I understand your reticence," Elouise began when they were alone. "To go against a king, _ce n'est pas bon_. But _ma cherie_ , I have to ask you this. We have these weeks been guests in London town. And t'was a month ere that Hal stayed with us. I do not like to pry, _ma chere pettite_ , but in that time since you two first were one, my Nell, I do not think you once have bled. If I am wrong, _je suis tres desole_. Tell me I am, and I will say no more."

The weight of her mother's words sunk into Nell's mind, causing her to go perfectly still. Her first reaction had been to insist that her mother of course was wrong, but as she thought back on it, she realized to her horror that Elouise had the right of it. It had been more than two months since she had first lain with Hal, and in all that time she had not had her courses. Worse, they had even stopped taking precautions to avoid her womb quickening since she had been in London. 

What had she been thinking? She was a healer, often a midwife! She knew how babies were made. Had she been so befuddled by lust that she had lost her senses? The answer was obvious, and she cursed herself for it.

"Maman, we must away from here at once!" she cried, eyes flying around the room. "He cannot know, or else he will lose all!"

"Why, ma _pettite_ , I pray you, be not rash!"

"The king will not abide this, good _maman_ ," Nell insisted, pacing the room. "He did quite clearly make his feelings known."

"The king will have no say in this, my love," Hal proclaimed, striding into the room "I am a man full grown, my will's my own. I found a woman that I wish to wed, of breeding, years, and state impeccable. No legal bar doth stand within our way. Tomorrow to St. Stephen's shall we go, and there before the Lord's most holy cross, I shall, sweet Nell, make you my own dear wife."

Hal's words echoed in the room, brash and commanding. But as the three others exchanged looks with each other, all wondered how he thought to get away with it. If the question bothered Hal at all, it showed not a trace in handsome face.

"So be it done, and God save Princess Nell," Jon said at last, as his brother smiled at the woman he loved.


	18. Tomorrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hal fills in Nell on his plan for the wedding and officially proposes.

He was quite aware that they all thought him mad. That was fine, Hal knew the truth. It might appear that his decision to marry Nell tomorrow had come about in a fit of pique that so inconsequential a human as Kent might dare to lay hands on or belittle his love, but it was in fact only the announcement that was impromptu. Hal had learned long ago that the best way for impulsive acts to come off successfully was to have actually planned them out long before. 

Hal had not merely been enjoying the company of his lady these last weeks. While Nell and her mother were resting or seeing to matters of their household, Hal had been plotting.

The issue, as he saw it, was a simple one. His father did not wish to marry his heir to anyone of less import than a princess. Hal could understand that from a purely political point of view, but he had no intention of letting it dictate his future happiness. Happiness he was convinced could only be achieve with Nell at his side. On the other hand, Henry had no real objection to Nell in and of herself, it was simply that she lacked a crown. He also had no wish to offer insult to the French king. Both of these things were made clear by the fact that he was perfectly happy to have Jon, his favorite, wed her.

It only stood to reason then, in Hal's mind at least, that were the King to return to find them already wed his hands would be tied. He would not dare to so offend Charles Valois by petitioning to have the union dissolved. Even if he should so take leave of his senses, there were no grounds. Hal had poured over the charts of birth and found to his relief that he and Nell were far enough apart that laws of consanguinity that governed marriage in the holy faith held no bar. He also planned to spend as much time as possible ensuring that the union would consummated. Indeed, he thought with a grin, this was his intention even if there was to be no challenge to the marriage. No, considering the bride had royal patrons of her own to speak for her, the Pope would never annul the union.

Would then his father go so far as to disinherit Hal? That was the other great threat, but Hal thought not. For one thing, Jon stood as a conspirator in the entire affair, and would not escape censure himself. Secondly, the infancy of Henry's reign was once again a factor. With the realm but recently healing from the trauma of the civil war which had put Henry on the throne, would he dare cast it into chaos by disinheriting his first born son? Hal might be seen as willful and having little respect for his own position, but it was for those very reasons that the people loved him. Add to this that he was a seasoned warrior and battle commander, and the danger of an ugly succession was far too real for any king to risk. Particularly when to take such action would, once again, offend the French.

All this indicated that the best course of action was to wed Nell while Henry was safely out of London. Once the royal presence was near at hand, it would impossible even for Hal to talk a priest into performing the ceremony. As things were, it took a week, a rather hefty donation that would provide for new stained glass windows for a certain chapel, and another bag of gold for the officiant himself. The Bishop of Exeter was fond of Hal, but not enough so to risk his monarch's displeasure without some additional lining of his own pockets.

He had not planned on telling Nell any of this until tomorrow morning. His darling did not have the devious nature that he did, and he had feared she might have some pangs of conscience that he, alas, could not afford to indulge at the moment. It seemed to make far more sense to leave her in blissful ignorance until the last possible moment. It had been no hardship, after all, to make sure that she was so distracted with their love making that she had no attention to spare for worrying. 

Now, unfortunately, he had opened his mouth and spoiled his surprise. He should have known better than to let Kent get under his skin, but Nell had let enough slip about her previous encounters with the bastard that Hal would gladly have choked the life out of him even before his audacity in offending Nell that afternoon.

"You cannot mean to act against the King!" Nell insisted for the twentieth time, staring at him with horrified wide eyes.

"The King can go to Hell for all I care," Hal snapped, much to the horror of the other three. "Forgive me, I meant not what I just said. But I will not content to live my life subjected to his every little whim. My love, if we do marry in the church then what can Henry do to but go along? At worst, I'll spend a month within the Tower."

"Why that alone is horrible enough!" she gasped.

"I doubt he'd go so far, fear not my love," Hal assured her with a fond smile. "What should the French King say if wedding you were shown to be a crime to the wide world? I think that he would likely frown on such."

"I think young Hal is right, _ma chere pettite_ ," Elouise said at last. "For I can send to Charles a hasty note informing him how all these matters stand. I fear nothing would please _le_ French _Roi_ more than so to make _Roi Henri_ eat his words and smile at this, a marriage he wants not."

"You think that he hopes not to marry Hal unto his own fair daughter Katherine?" Jon asked anxiously.

" _Peut-être_ , but the Princess is still young," Elouise shrugged, "and there are other princes in the world."

"I'm sure that in another life time, Jon, I might have haply wed Kathrine Valois," Hal said. "But, since I have now met her beauteous cuz, no other woman doth exist for me."

"Well, if you be determined to be wed, it seems that this doth be the only way," Jon said at last. "I will of course, stand witness to your vows, and do what ever other thing you need."

"All is prepared, we have only wait," Hal smiled around at them all. "Sly Exeter will say the nuptial mass, provided that we claim that he knew not the king stood so opposed to the match."

Jon and Elouise seemed content with the decision, but as Hal sought out Nell's eyes, he found her in deep contemplation of her hands where they lingered on her stomach. She had not spoken much at all during the proceeding conversation, except to voice repeatedly her concern that they were defying the king. For so strong and spirited a one as his beloved, this seemed decidedly out of character.

"My darling, might I have a word with you?"

Drawing her from her seat, he walked her over to the windowed alcove, noting how her mother's eyes followed them anxiously. When he had her apart from the others, Hal suddenly found himself at a loss of words, a rare occurrence for the glib prince. Had he mistaken her feelings for him, he suddenly wondered with a stomach dropping fear. He had assumed that her love for him was equal to his for her, or at least approaching so. What if, in the grand scheme of the world, she decided that she did not want more than to be lovers? Did not want to be forced into the world of politics and plotting that came with his station in life?

"My darling Nell, I pray you look at me," he said at last, lifting her chin with a gentle finger. "It strikes me now that we have come to this, that in all of the time that we have spent I never yet one special thing have done."

Swallowing hard, Hal took a deep breath and sank down onto one knee on the cold stone floor. Nell's eyes, storm tossed and searching, held to his as he reached up to her in supplication.

"In all the time I've tread upon this earth, I never hoped that I one day would find another soul who I did love so well. 'Tis thus that I, Harry Plantagenet, do offer up to thee my Eleonor, my heart and hand, for truly both are thine. Pray take them up, my love and take up me. And I forever more will cleave to thee."

Tears were standing bright in Nell's eyes as she put her cool, trembling hand into his warm one. 

"From first the moment I laid eyes on thee," she told him, "no other man could hope to win my heart, for it had flown full force into they hands. So come what may, I take thee as my own. And Heaven then cry mercy on us both."

Hal kissed her hand and rose to his feet, pulling her into a more fervent embrace once he was standing. She still seemed to be fretting, but that was to be expected. She had not spent her life flying in the face of the desires of the king the way he had. To most people he supposed that this madcap plan of his would seem terrifying. His only terror lay in the thought that something might yet happen to stop them from putting it into action.

"If Eleonor is for the church _demain_ ," Elouise said, interrupting their embrace before it could become too heated, "then she and I should now return _chez nous_. There do be much and more we must prepare to make her ready for her special day."

"Must you do so, my precious little love," he asked, kissing the top of Nell's head. "I fear then I shall not to sleep tonight. My bed is not a place of comfort, sweet, if you are not there in it by my side."

"After tomorrow we need never part," Nell smiled up at him. "So let me go just for this one short night."

"One long night, Nell if you are not with me," he grinned back at her, knowing it was nothing more than the truth. "At least my misery will have company. For Jon, I fear, must stay at home tonight. Forgive me, _madam_ , for depriving you."

"It will go hard, but just for this one night, I do release my _bon ami_ to you," Elouise said with a little pout. 

Hal gave Nell one last, searing kiss when he had walked her out to courtyard, no longer caring who should see. The word was no doubt all over the house by now, that all who had remained in doubt did know after the scene at the market that Hal intended to wed her.

"Just one more night, my dearest darling love," he murmured into her ear as he embraced her, "then no force in this world can sever us."

"I love you, Hal, with all that's in my heart," she replied quietly, and then was gone.

"You owe me Hal, and I mean to collect," Jon told him once the ladies had departed. "These nights with her are all that I do have. There is no wedding day awaiting me, where Elouise and I can pledge our love."

"Is it then love that you do feel for her?" Hal asked in legitimate curiosity. "I do admit I oft have wondered that."

"I know it doth seem strange, tis strange to me!" Jon laughed, throwing himself into a chair as Hal poured them wine. "When we did first begin to kiss and court, it was just as a game, to pass the time. Who had not heard the tales that all did tell about the lovely Elouise D'Amboise? But Hal, the more time I do spend with her, I see the woman underneath the name. The pain that she has suffered in her life, indignities no one should have to bear. Yes, she hath made mistakes, she doth admit. But at their core was simple loneliness, and want of feeling needed in the world. I find that I can empathize with both. She needs me, Hal, and in return for that, she makes me feel as if I were a king."

"I wish you happy brother, truly so. And just the same unto your lady love."

"And you, on this the eve before you wed! What is it then, about these fair D'Amboise, that they have brought us both unto our knees?"

"For sure, they must be witches, both of them," Hal laughed, drinking deeply. "For I am deep in thrall to a love spell. But tell me Jon, for you are sharp of eye. Did'st not seem strange that Nell did stay so still? She barely had more than a word to say."

"You must admit, it was a busy day," Jon chuckled. "A run in with the Earl of Kent to start. The breaking of your silence 'bout your love. And then your plan to marry on the morn! What woman, be she ever such a sport, could hope to take so much and not be stunned."

"I know all that you say is only truth," Hal agreed, staring into his glass. "And yet, for all of that, it seemed to me as if some other thing weighed on her mind. Do me a favor, just to ease my mind. Go now and find the captain of my guard and ask that two of his most trusted men be stationed cross the street from Nell's abode."

"You think there might be trouble there tonight?" Jon asked, concern in his voice. "That Kent, perchance might mischief try to make?"

"No, tis not that I fear, or not alone," Hal ran his finger back and forth across his lips as he thought. "Tell them that if the Lady Nell should leave, either alone or else in company, then one of them must come and tell me quick, and let his partner follow where she goes."

"What? What suspect you Hal, that you do this?"

"I am not sure, but something be not right. I wish that they had stayed with us tonight. I would not force the lady to be wed, though I would like to do so, it be true. If she should seek to flee before the dawn, I want to know, and where she might be bound. For such a stupid, selfless act of will, designed to save me from my father's wrath, is just the sort of stunt that she would pull."

"It never hath been clearer than right now, how perfect then the woman is for you," Jon shook his head. "How two such mad, impulsive ones as you are to get through your lives without much strife is more than I, a poor sane man can see."

"No doubt you're right, she leads a merry chase," Hal said agreeably, mind chasing down allies to try and predict Nell's moves. "But I will follow how e're so long she leads, as long as I can hope to win the prize."

"What prize is that? Elucidate me that," Jon asked at the door.

"Why, just her own sweet self, I want no more."

"Get ye to bed, Hal, I'll go set the watch."

Hal nodded as Jon left the room. He knew he would get no sleep though, and not just because Nell was not by his side. Something was troubling her. Something even larger than their clandestinely planned wedding. He needed to discover what it was. He could not bear to see her suffer.

Good lord, he thought, rolling his eyes at himself as realized how soppingly maudlin he sounded. Who would have thought that Prince Hal, the wastrel rouge would be come to this? A large grin split his face and chuckled. He would not borrow trouble. Tomorrow he would marry Nell, and all would be well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I want to take a moment to apologize to anyone who actually speaks French. I took it in school, but that was years ago, and I know the smattering of fr-anglaise that Elouise speaks must be painful for you. I know it is shaky at best, but please bear with me!
> 
> Second, I felt the need to offer a small tip of the hat to Katherine Valois. I apologize sincerely to her for depriving her of Hal in this story.


	19. Wedding Bells

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will Nell go through with the wedding, or run away as Hal fears? Or will some other force keep them from tying the knot?

Nell submitted herself to her mother's ministrations as if she were a doll, allowing Elouise to wash and brush her hair, rub creams into her skin, and supervise the buffing and lacquering of her nails to her heart's content. The older woman was more skilled with such procedures - her own flawless complexion and spun gold hair were proof enough of that. She knew Elouise would have her looking her best, assuming her eyes were not dark and sunken from the lack of sleep she knew to expect.

As still and composed as her body was, Nell's mind was racing. She was to marry Hal tomorrow. _Tomorrow!_ It was more than she seemed able to comprehend.

Oh, she firmly believed that Hal wished to marry her. His flattering attentions these past weeks had more than proved that to her. She loved him more than ever for that. But Hal was headstrong, prone to rush in like a bull when his mind was set. It was a natural byproduct of having never had his will truly crossed. Not in anything so major as this, at any rate. How like a man, she thought, that one had but to tell him something was not to be and he would move heaven and earth to make it so.

His reasoning on his father's reaction did make a certain amount of logical sense, but she was not all that certain that it would prove true. The last time he had sought to manipulate the king, after all, it had not worked out exactly as he had planned. If King Henry was not so easily swayed to see things his way, would Hal come to resent the hasty marriage and the wife who had cost him the favor of the king? Perhaps even the future throne?

This was, more than anything, what gave Nell such pause. She didn't care for herself if they were disowned. After all, she had never expected anything more than to live out her life in quiet obscurity. Hal, on the other hand, had been raised from the cradle with the knowledge that one day he would be among the most powerful men in the world. Could he live with being just a mere mortal after such exalted expectations? Could she ask that of him?

When at last she was freed from the poking and prodding of the giggling women of her household, Nell said a grateful good night and hastened to her room. As she had known it would, sleep proved elusive. How could she rest when her mind had so much to sort through? After hours of tossing restlessly, she rose, grabbed the red cloak Hal had so thoughtfully forgotten in her room, and crept down the stairs. She needed air, wished that she were home in Arden so that she could walk out under the stars and clear her head.

Following that line of thought, she found herself making her way down to the front entrance of the rented house. There was no grand courtyard as at Hal's palace, their horses were stabled with his, but a large steel gate still protected them from the dark of London. Thankful that the servants her royal suitor provided kept the hinges well oiled, Nell pulled her hood over her head and opened the gate just wide enough to slip outside.

She was being careless she knew. This was not Arden Wood, where the worst she was like to face outside her door was an unfriendly stag. She was aware that cut purses and worse roamed the streets at night, looking for unsuspecting prey. Still, she needed the feeling of being outside, away from the prying eyes of both her own attendants and those hired by Hal. Breathing in the slightly malodorous air of London, Nell sought the clarity she was so desperately lacking.

She had given serious consideration to running away. Not back to her cottage, that would be too easy to track. Perhaps she would have tried to make her way to France, to her father and brothers. Elouise would be fine here, she had Jon well and truly entranced. Part of her still thought she should go, that if she had real courage she would slip away now, disappear into the night and leave Hal to the glorious destiny and future princess he had been born for.

She probably would have, were it not for one thing. Looking down at her midsection, still flat even without a corset, she tried to wrap her mind around the fact that a new life could be growing inside. A piece of her and piece of Hal, combined to create a unique being. It was a thought to fill her with joy and terror. If it was true, and she had little doubt any more on that score, how could she run? How could she deprive a child of a father as loving and fiercely protective as Hal would be? How could she deprive him of the chance to be a father?

A movement across the street caught her attention, and she grasped the gate behind her. As her eyes focused, the man stepped out from the shadows and gave her a half bow. The light from his small lantern brightened him momentarily, and she caught a sight of his jerkin, and more specifically the crest on it. Nell nodded her head with a rueful smile. Hal's man. Of course. While it was possible the man or his fellows had been stationed there every night since her arrival, she doubted it. She had seen Hal's searching looks at her before she left. It would not surprise her at all if he had guessed she had flight on her mind, had posted guards to protect her in case she ran. Her prince knew her well for so short an acquaintance. That thought gave her a surge of confidence about their future, and she slowly turned and made her way back into the house, to seek out her sleepless bed.

When the morning dawned, she was more than ready to arise. Having made her peace in the long night with this rash action Hal had decided on, she decided to surrender herself up to the joy of it. She was marrying a man she loved. A prince, tall, handsome, smart, and sinfully skilled in the erotic arts. What woman wouldn't envy her? In place of her blank stare of the night before, she was all smiles as she let her mother once more brush out her hair. She would wear it long, barely acceptable for a bride, with some of Elouise's jeweled combs fastened in it for the special occasion. Her gown was a creamy white satin with burgundy lace overdress. She had noticed Hal seemed to have a fondness for the color. She even let her mother apply subtle coal to her eyes and red to her lips. 

" _Ma_ Eleonore, _c'est vrais_ you are _tres belle_ ," Elouise sighed when at last she was satisfied with her daughters appearance. 

"Yet still I pale when I compare to you," Nell smiled back.

Rarely had she and her mother been so in charity with each other. Impulsively she embraced her parent, fighting back tears that would mar all the older lady's hard work.

"I am much pleased that you have found your prince," her mother told her, dabbing at her own eyes. "I do regret the match I sought to make. I did not know such passion lived in you."

"All is forgiven, it has worked out well," Nell smiled back.

"Hath any man been so by beauty blessed, to escort forth two ladies such as you?" Duncan asked.

The elderly retainer had been quieter than usual since they had arrived in London. Nell knew there were many complex reasons for this. On the one hand, he was out of his element. Duncan was not a creature of the city. He like quiet and contemplation, his books and his nature. Here, he had less to do and struggled to fill his time in the noisy metropolis. Also, while he was happy that both Nell and Elouise had found happiness in the embraces of the Plantagenet princes, Nell knew that his heart was breaking all over again for the great beauty that would never see him as anything more than a trusted friend and ally. 

Still, he was resplendent today, fitted out in a deep blue velvet gown belted with silver. He was to stand in place of her father and give her to Hal. He had wept silent tears last night when she had asked him, unable to make any response except to nod as he dashed them from his eyes.

A knock at the gate signaled the arrival of their carriage, and the three of them hastened outside to find a beautiful conveyance drawn by a set of matched greys. Hal and Jon were meeting them at the church. It was too risky for all of them to be seen going together. The chapel Hal had selected was in the same district as the royal castle, and a prince would always be noticed. Nell also suspected that the romantic in her groom prodded him to keep apart from her until they beheld each other in church. She leaned back against the comfortable seat cushion and tried to keep her stomach steady. Whether from nerves or the secret passenger inside she was not certain, but she felt a bit unsettled.

The chapel was lovely. While not as large as many churches they had visited in the city, it had a quaint picturesque quality that Nell loved on sight. Duncan took her arm and led her to the side where the confessional awaited. She blushed as she confessed, in limited details, her sins of the flesh, but considering she was there to be married, she managed to convince herself that the priest would find a way to forgive her.

Once shriven, there was nothing left but the main event. As they entered the nave of the church, she watched as the Bishop and alter boy processed up the aisle. There, at the end by the altar, stood two tall men in red velvet. She only had eyes for one.

Elouise glided up the aisle first, elegant to her fingertips, and then Duncan was walking Nell down the long walkway. As she looked forward, she caught Hal's eyes, sparkling in the candlelight. A smile just tilted his lips, and his cheeks were tinted the slightest red to match his outfit. A gold circlet held back his curly locks, making him look even more regal than was his wont. When they reached the altar, Duncan kissed her cheek fondly, tears once again standing in his eyes, and placed her hands in Hal's warm grasp.

"Who gives this woman here unto this man," the priest intoned.

"I do, in service of her lord and father," Duncan answered.

They knelt, and the priest began the ceremony in Latin. Nell barely registered the words, too intent on Hal and how resplendent he looked. He seemed no less rapt, and when the Bishop at last arrived at the part which required their participation, both of them were startled out of their revelry.

"Will you, Henry Plantagenet, fifth of that name," he asked ponderously, "take Lady Eleonor to be your wife? To love and honor, cherish and protect? And cleave only to her till death you part?"

"I will," Hal responded in a strong, steady voice.

"Will you then, Lady Eleonore D'Amboise, take Prince Henry to be your Lord and Husband? To love and honor, cherish and obey? And cleave only to him till death you part?"

"I will," Nell's voice rang clear as a bell as electricity surged through her body.

"Have you the ring?" the Bishop asked.

As Jon handed him a band of gold set with a fiery ruby, Hal once more claimed Nell's hand and slid the ring onto the tip of her finger.

"My Eleonore, with this ring I the wed," he told her, staring into her eyes. "With my body I thee worship, with all my worldly goods I thee endow."

He slid the ring down onto her finger, and it was done. She was married to the most handsome, puissant prince in all of Christendom.

"I now pronounce you are husband and wife," the Bishop said, signing the cross over their heads. "What God has joined, let no man put asunder."

Gently, using a single finger to guide her, Hal tilted her chin up and set a kiss to her lips that was aching in its sweetness. Were she not in church, Nell gladly would have thrown herself onto him and begged for more. She had never felt so beautiful, so adored, or so in love.

"My lady wife, you do put flowers to shame," Hal told her, raising her hand to kiss as he led her back down the aisle. 

"How odd it is hear you call me that," she said, unable to stifle the giggle that bubbled forth from her. "Can it be real that we are thus so joined?"

"As real a thing as any on this earth," he assured her, grinning back. "And were it not for custom that demands, we eat a wedding breakfast with our friends, I should now take you back to our own bed and show you just how joined we truly are!"

"My husband, I can scarce await such time," she assured him, loving the way the word sounded on her tongue. "But ere we break our fast, my dearest love, there is something that I must share with you."

Hal looked inquisitively at her, and she began formulating how she would say the words, when a discreet clearing of the throat from their celebrant captured their attention.

"Forgive me love, the Bishop craves a word," Hal said with a speaking look. "Though I would rather much stay here with you, I fear I must provide him with his purse."

"Of course, Hal, it will wait till you are done," she said happily.

As Hal went to thank the Bishop, Nell was embraced by Jon, who gleefully called her sister, Elouise, and Duncan. They were all gushing merrily over her and the ceremony, when a wave of dizziness, combined with sudden cramping washed over Nell. Putting out a hand to brace herself on the pew next to her, Nell found herself bending over with her other arm clutching her stomach.

" _Ma chere_ , are you alright? Is ought amiss?" Elouise asked, first to notice her change.

"Tis nothing, just a bit of dizziness," she said giving her mother a weak smile. "I fear I have not eaten much of late."

Her mother looked at her carefully, clearly aware that something more was going on, but held her peace. Clenching the wooden pew, Nell willed her insides to settle and the dizziness to pass, but more and more she felt her vision swimming. The words of her family were becoming a disjointed hum in the background, and she closed her eyes to fight against a flash of pain.

"Nell, Nell, you look not well, do you sit down!" she heard her mother say distinctly, but before she could make her body obey, another wave of dizziness overcame her, and she found herself sinking to the floor in oblivion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry! I know it is evil to end this here. I will say, I am a hopeless romantic, so please do not be too upset! I would not be so cruel as to end this tragically. I love them too much!


	20. My Lady Wife

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hal is buffeted by highs and lows as he marries his love and learns of her delicate condition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My husband is out of town for a few days, so I have more time to write! This means no waiting after the cliffhanger of the last chapter!

It had been a long night for Hal. He lost two games of chess to Jon, who took no small amount of smug satisfaction for besting his brother, snarled at a poor currier from the palace sent with word of his father's expectant arrival on the morrow, and at last retired to his chamber for a night of little sleep.

It had all been worth it though, he thought as he stood in the chapel next to his brother, watching the woman he loved walk towards him. She was breathtaking. From her shining hair to her dainty white boots and all in between, Nell was a vision. A little frantically, Hal hoped that certain parts of his anatomy would be able to remember where exactly he now stood and behave themselves. It was bad enough that he had found himself growing hard in the confessional, to do so at the altar was beyond the pale!

As he took her cold hands in his, he realized that all of his hopes for the future were now contained in this one woman, for whom he would risk any censure or punishment his father chose to bestow. As long as he had Nell, let Henry take the crown. He would go into the world and earn himself a new one. 

The ceremony went by in a blur of Latin that only briefly penetrated his hearing. All his senses were trained instead on the lady by his side. He could smell her subtle perfume, hear her rapid breathing, feel the magnetic field that seemed to draw them together. So focused on her was he, that it came as a surprise when he realized that the mass was almost at an end, and the Bishop was asking him if he would take this woman. Hal did not hesitate before affirming his vow. There was no doubt in his mind. He was gratified when Nell, as well, answered the questions with a swift, firm "I do."

The ruby in the ring he placed on her finger was large for her slender hands, but the band fit snugly. It had been his mother's ring; one of the few belongings of hers he had. It meant more than he could say that Nell would wear it as a symbol of their union. 

And then she was in his arms, kissing him with a gentle fire that could ignite his heart to a blaze if he was not careful. Again, he strove to remind himself that they were on consecrated ground. Time enough to sully her later. They had a lifetime now. For a few moments, he could be reverent and adoring as a bride deserved.

"Good prince, if all your needs are satisfied..." the Bishop of Exeter said with an expectant look.

"Except those that must wait until tonight," Hal replied without thought as his eyes strayed to his wife. His _wife_! How sweet the words! "Forgive me, Holy Father for my jest. I see you wait for you remuneration."

He had never had much use for priests, but damned if he wouldn't pay Exeter happily for his good day's work! Hal untied a bag of gold from his belt, more than the agreed to in sum, for he was in a mood to be large with the world today. The bishop's icy demeanor thawed a bit at the heft of the coins he was tossed, and he proceeded to bend Hal's ear with felicitations. Hal endured it manfully, wondering how long he needed to be polite before he could enjoy a private, if too short, carriage ride with his bride to their wedding breakfast. He had plans for Nell on that quick journey, and had a second bag of coins as an incentive to the driver to take the long way about.

As his eyes wandered over to where she stood, Hal felt a jolt of unease. Nell's hand clutched the back of a pew next to her, and she seemed to be experiencing some sort of distress. He heard her mother say as much, before to his horror his new wife crumpled like an empty dress to the floor.

Hal was across the room in two long strides, dropping to his knees to scoop her into the protective circle of his arms. Her eyes were closed, and her body limp as he held her to him and stroked her face.

"Nell, my darling wife, open your eyes!" he begged, staring desperately at her. "Oh God above, what do be wrong with her?"

Elouise was kneeling next to them then, taking her pulse and feeling her forehead with an air of experience that reminded him distantly of her daughter. The woman muttered something to herself in French that he did not understand before drawing her hand back and giving her daughter a sharp slap across the face.

"Madam, I must protest, desist at once!" Hal snapped at her, pulling Nell in closer.

Her mother though, it seemed, had not acted in malice. Nell stirred within his arms and her eyes fluttered open.

"What Hal? Why am I lying on the ground?" she said in a muddled, confused voice.

"Aye, that's the question, love, we all would solve," he told her with a huge wave of relief. "Come, tell me now, what doth be wrong with you?"

"Some dizziness, and cramping that is all," she mumbled, staring around with an embarrassed look. "I fear I have not eaten and was faint."

"Some cramping? Is it bad? And be there blood?" her mother asked her intently as Hal kissed her brow.

"What, blood? I fear that something is amiss!" Hal was more anxious than ever now, looking from mother to daughter. "I must insist you tell me what is wrong! She is my wife, it is my right to know!"

"My love, this is not how I would you learned," Nell smiled weakly at him, "but I agree, you have the right to know. My lord and husband, though I am not sure beyond all doubt, yet I would bet my life, that in my womb your tiny child and heir is even now beginning to draw strength."

Hal stared at her, knowing that his mouth was gaping wide like an idiot's. Had he heard her correctly? From the smug smile on her mother's face, he thought he had. Still, he had to be sure.

"A child Nell? Oh, do I hear you true? Be you with child my love? Oh tell me, do!"

"You are to be a father, husband mine," she told him with a radiant smile, despite her still haggard looking face.

"A father... I'd not thought... Oh, Jesu wept! How this day doth compound my blessings quite! First fairer wife than ever man hath wed, and now a child to seal our loving bond! Oh Nell, my dearest love, can it be so? That any man can be so truly blessed?"

"Right glad I am that you do take it well," Nell sighed in relief. "I must confess that it did cross my mind that you may not be ready for it yet."

"I looked not for it, that I will admit," he said with a laugh, "though all considered it is no surprise. Forgive me, father, I will not say more. But nothing in the world might please me more than Nell to have a family with you."

Nell smiled, but then her grip on his hand tightened and she seemed to be wracked by a spasm of pain. Panic welled up again with him, he looked around with wild eyes.

"But why are you in pain, if all is well? Have you yet been to see a doctor Nell?" he demanded.

"There was not time, I realized just last night," she admitted. "Tis just the stress I'm sure, and lack of food. I will be fine when I have rest and eat."

"I will not risk your health on such a hunch," he said sternly, picking her up easily in his arms. "You must at once to see a doctor, wife."

"I have served as a midwife often, _cher_ ," Elouise offered, "and can examine her once we are home."

"I mean no disrespect to you, _Ma Mere_ ," Hal told her stiffly, walking towards the door with Nell, "but I will have her seen by Dr. Hobbs. He is the king's own personal physician. We are now close by to the palace grounds. I straight away shall take her there to him. Forgive us if we do not stay to dine, but go you all back home, enjoy the feast. We will return when she is given leave."

"Hal, this is all unnecessary love," Nell insisted, squirming a bit in his grasp.

"I hate to bring it up at such a time," he smiled at her, "but you did even now vow to obey. And even if those words you never spoke, you are my captive now my little wife. Content yourself to suffer for my sake and let the doctor tell me all is well."

Nell glared at him for a moment, unhappy that he was using such obvious emotional blackmail on her, but at last nodded her head. It was not as though he was giving her a choice in the matter, as he quickly had her bundled into her wedding carriage and was giving instructions to the driver. When he had her settled within, her head resting in his lap, he offered her a rueful smile.

"I'll have you know I had planed for this ride," he told her regretfully, "to make you happy that you were my wife."

"I am already, you need have no plans," she told him, kissing his hand where it lay next to her face. "But curiosity doth prompt me to inquire... what sort of plan is it of which you speak?"

Hal grinned down at her as she tried valiantly to ignore the blush creeping over her face.

"Why, first I thought to kiss you out of breath," he said nonchalantly, shrugging. "As I could not do while we were in church. And when you were under my charming spell, I'd lay you back, not so unalike to now, that I might have full access to your frame. My hand would slowly lift your heavy skirts, until I could caress your supple legs, and kiss my way up each of them in turn. By then, I think we both are well aware, that you would be a-pant to have my kiss land where those legs do meet, and so it would.

"I'd take my time, and drive you so distraught that poor Gustav our coachmen would to blush to hear the obscene noises you would make. Yet still I'd push you further with my tongue, and add my skillful fingers to the mix. I'd suck upon your pearl and fill you full, find that spot within you that you love. In short, I so would worship your sweet sex that I would bring you to the little death."

Nell's eye's were blown wide by the time he finished, and her breathing was coming fast and heavy. Hal smiled wickedly down at her as she ran her tongue over her lips.

"I am not, my dear prince, as weak as that," she offered her hips canting slightly up and down on the seat. "Perhaps you still could put your plan to work."

"Once Hobbs has said there is no danger love, then you shall not rise from my bed for days. But now alas, the tyrant shall I play and make you wait until that word comes down."

He was completely in agreement with her disgruntled pout. He had managed to work himself up with his vivid imagining as much as he had her. She was just too tempting, lying upon him as she was. He had never known such constant lust for another human being. The fact that it was twined with love made it an even headier mixture. He did allow his hand to dip down a bit, to fondle her breast above her bodice, and he couldn't quite help the way the bouncing of the vehicle jostled his erection against the side of her face. All she would need do was turn her head slightly...

The carriage drew to a halt and he grudgingly put away his lecherous thoughts. The health of his wife and baby was far more important than his current desire to find a place within her for his ever ready cock. Helping her to sit up, he adjusted himself and hopped out of the carriage, sweeping her back into his arms.

He carried her into the palace despite her protests. Ignoring the stares of those he passed, he made his way through the twisted corridors until he came to the King's suite of rooms. A royal page at once jumped to attention and demanded, with great deference of course, his purpose.

"My wife, the princess Nell is in some pain," he said, startling the poor boy. "Run now and fetch old Hobbs here straight away. I would have her examined by the man. Tell no one else our business, mark me well!"

The last was sentence was thrown after the boy as an after thought as Nell squeaked in protest.

"You must get used to such high handed ways," he teased her, carrying her into a room that sometimes housed the Queen's attendants. "You are a princess now, and duty calls."

"I never shall be used to such address," she said dubiously. "You scared that poor young page boy half to death!"

"I did him service, Nell, I promise you," Hal laughed, setting her on the bed. "He will drink out a week and pay no bill from telling of that story to his friends."

"What is this then some prank which you do pull?" a dry, familiar voice demanded as Dr. Hobbs shuffled into the room

Hal had known the doctor forever. He was old and sarcastic, but without equal in the field of medicine. All of Henry's children had been tended to over the years by him, including Hal.

"No prank, good doctor. Meet my new made wife. Princess Eleonor, good Doctor Hobbs."

"Forgive us, doctor, barging in on you," Nell said kindly, "the prince speaks true, we have been wed today."

"Well this will serve the old king quite a turn," Hobbs fussed. "I kindly hope you wait till I am gone to share with Henry all your happy news. But what is it that ails you now, my girl? What has this rascal done to cause you harm?"

"What Me? Why think you I have something done?" Hal demanded in an aggrieved voice.

"Because I have known you all of your life. Now hush, vain boy, and go and wait outside."

Hal hushed, but he would be damned if he was going anywhere.

"You are correct to think so Dr. Hobbs," Nell told the physician. "I fear the prince, my husband, I should say, has gotten me into a family way."

"Well that was fast, when wedding her today," Hobbs shot him a scathing look. "How long think you, and wherefore the concern? You look to me to be a healthy girl."

"Sometime in the past month or two, I think," Nell blushed prettily to admit. "I only realized it yesterday. I have been feeling dizzy all the morn, and fainted in the church some hour passed. I think it just that I forgot to eat."

"Well, we will check that everything is well," Hobbs sighed. "Now Harry, get you gone from here at once. I will not ask again, but send for guards."

"I will be king one day old man, take care," Hal warned the doctor, but allowed himself to be ushered out of the room. 

In truth the fact that Nell and Elouise both seemed unworried had done much to sooth his nerves. They knew far more about the mysteries motherhood than he ever could hope or want to fathom. Still, his mind would be more at peace if Hobbs confirmed their opinions. 

A child, he thought again, sitting on a low backed chair and stretching out his long legs. He had always assumed he would have children, of course. It was a primary duty of a king to sire sons to secure the succession and daughters to cement alliances. That had all been in the abstract, however. This was here and now. In nine months time, if all went well, pray God, he would be holding a child of his own flesh in his arms. A babe that was half him and half Nell, perhaps with her sun kissed brown hair and his blue eyes. 

She would make an excellent mother, there was no question as to that. Nell took care of everyone else around her out of pure instinct of character. How much more tender would she be with her own babe? He could see her now, tiny infant on her lap, breasts swollen with milk. His heart was well nigh close to bursting.

"What make you here, and in such garish clothes?" a harsh voice intruded into his idyllic imaginings. "What, must you dress like some French fop of fashion?"

"My father, I thought not to see you here!" he said, standing at once and dipping his head in salute.

"In my own rooms? Than wherefore are you here? Come, spit it out, I have not got all day."

Hal searched his mind for how to tell his father. He was half tempted to just blurt out the words baldly, and let the chips fall where they may. Had he been alone, he probably would have done so, but he did not want Nell to have to deal with the ensuing tirade, particularly in her delicate condition. His plan had been to visit his father alone and break the news, that Henry's anger fall on his shoulders alone. Later, when the king had had time to come to terms with the situation, he would bring Nell to court and introduce her as his wife.

"I have... a good friend who had fallen ill," he compromised. "I brought them here, that Hobbs may tend to them."

"God, boy, say it is not one of your whores," Henry sneered, "that you have brought into my chambers now."

"She is no whore, my father, be content," he replied through clenched teeth.

"But 'tis a woman, think of my surprise," the king shook his head. "How many wild oats must you still sow, before you settle down and be a man?"

"Your highness I have looked the princess o'er, and do confirm her thoughts all be correct."

"The princess? What the devil mean you this?" Henry demanded, causing Hobbs to jump and let out a started cry as he realized his monarch had arrived in his absence. "Have I a daughter that I know not of?"

Hobbs opened and shut his mouth, looking to Hal in entreaty. Hal closed his eyes and drew a breath. So much for his well thought out intentions. Nothing for it but the face the music straight on.

"The doctor, father, speaks of my new bride. I hope you'll wish us happy from your heart."

"Your bride?" Henry's voice was quiet, far more intimidating than if he had screamed. "I fear there must be some mistake. For when a crown prince seeks to take a wife, he must obtain permission from his king."

"I'll leave your graces now to talk of this," Hobbs said, bowing quickly and darting from the room.

Henry and Hal stared at each other for several long moments, neither willing to speak first. Finally, Hal ducked his head.

"I will not beg forgiveness for the act," he said quietly. "For I would marry her a hundred times. But it does grieve me father, by my soul, that you were not at hand to see us wed."

"This is that D'Amboise girl I do assume," Henry growled. "I do begin to think the stories true, that those women have witchcraft in their blood."

"I will take all the blame that you bestow, and know you have the right to speak me thus," Hal told his father in a tight voice. "But do not think to speak the lady shame, or slander her good name with taunts and smears. I will not hear one single word that seeks to cast her into an unseemly light."

"You will not hear? What, boy, are you now king? You give me orders here in mine own rooms?" Henry was full voice now, and Hal was beginning to rethink his feelings on quieter being more unsettling.

"I love her father, and she is my wife," he ground out. "No lesser a prelate than Exeter did bind us in the holy bands of love."

"You flaunt my will and think that I will blink, and simply acquiesce to your defiance? I am the King! You are a willful boy! This girl may now have caught your wandering eye, but we both know that soon it will move on. A lion does not mate unto a doe, he needs a lioness to bear his cubs!"

"I am a man, and I will do my will!" Hal shouted at his father, forgetting for the moment the woman in the next room. "The deed is done, it cannot be denied. Eleonor D'Amboise is now my wife. Our child even now is in her womb. If you cannot accept that, tis on you. I will not hear of putting her aside. Nor will the King of France, as well you know. Make peace with matters or, I do not jest, my family and I will soon be gone, and leave this England for some kinder shore."

"Why Hal, what means this shouting, who is here?" Nell opened the door and stepped into the room.

Her mouth froze in an "o" as her eyes took in the tall, lean man in drab clothes with a crown perched on his head. Visibly trembling, she dipped down into a graceful and low curtsey, but Hal was proud to see that her chin stayed high. When she had risen back up, she crossed over to Hal and placed her hand on his velvet clad arm.

"My father, it is with great honor, sir, that I present to you my lady wife."


	21. Family Dynamics

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nell meets Henry. What could possibly go wrong?

Nell took her time righting her garments after the doctor left. She could dimly hear voices through the thick oak door, though the words themselves were muffled. Someone had entered the outer chamber, and she had no desire to see the quizzical or scornful looks that would no doubt be trained on her. If Hal had brought other women to the palace, she could only guess what sort of women they would be.

When the voices began rising, however, her anxiety on her new husband's behalf would not let her remain hidden any longer. With one last smoothing of her dress and hair, she pushed the heavy door open and entered the antechamber.

"Why Hal, what means this shouting, who is here?" she asked as she stepped out into the room.

The tension was unmistakable, and defiant anger radiated from her prince. Her eyes flickered from his set jaw to the other occupant of the room. A shapeless black robe and dusty hose covered him with a distinct lack of care for appearance. In contrast to that, the gold crown perched atop his head over a wool cap was the embodiment of nobility in their world. Realizing all at once who this must be, Nell felt her mouth open in a soundless show of horrified surprise.

Trying to suppress the trembling that threatened to overcome her, she dipped down into a full, formal curtsy. Not only was this her king, but it was Hal's father, and she wanted to show him all duty and deference. Still and all though, she knew that hard words had already been spoken, it was clear from the rigid stance of both of them, and while Henry was her king, Hal was her husband. She would not shame him by cowering like a peasant. With tremendous difficulty, she kept her chin lifted with pride - pride in the prince that she had married - as she did her fealty.

"My father, it is with great honor, sir, that I present to you my lady wife," Hal's voice broke the strained silence as he moved forward to place a protective arm about her.

"My wife says he, as brazenly as that!" Henry snarled, much to her dismay.

"Tis no more than the truth, think what thou wilt," Hal insisted with a lift of one shoulder.

"Your majesty, I know this seems in haste," Nell had to say something, it was not in her nature to let others fight her battles for her, "and not, perhaps, what you would have had done. But I now swear to you upon my life, I love the prince your son with all my heart, and will endeavor to deserve of him."

"A feral cat might well deserve of him," Henry said with a humorless laugh. "I have no doubt that you deserve far more. But it is not my thankless son's deserts that I care now about, but England's course! For any harlot may love a man well, but that means not he takes her for his bride. A queen is more than just a comely face, and any king who doth deserve his crown would think of more than just his urge to rut before he gives away so high a prize!"

She felt her face grow scarlet at his words, but still placed a restraining hand on Hal's arm, alerted by his even further tensed muscles that he was ready to do his father violence. She did not think either of them would come back from such an encounter.

"I'd thank you, Sir, to give me more respect than to assume my thoughts have been so base," Hal spat out from between clenched teeth. "The lady, you will find, possesses all the qualities you'd want most in a queen."

"Except that she comes not of royal blood!" Henry interrupted, face turning red. "You knew my wishes, I had made them plain! You were to wed a princess in your time. And now you through your chances all away, dismiss the hope to make your country safe, and think still you deserve a monarch's throne?"

Nell felt a queasiness deep inside that had nothing to do with a missed meal or her delicate condition. He was right, she thought. Hal owed it to England, to his people, to marry where it would do the most good. Her cousin, for instance, could have brought about a lasting peace with France. How had they let their hearts lead them so astray as to take such rash action as they had today?

"Oh Hal, there do be much in what he says," she quietly admitted to him, unable to meet his eyes.

"Hush my love, I will not hear a word," her handsome tyrant quieted her. "It is in any case too late to doubt. We are made one, and soon one shall be three. You have not, father, wished us happy yet. Most men, I do hear tell, are overjoyed when hearing that a grandchild will be born."

Nell closed her eyes, as the words left Hal's mouth. Why was he baiting his father so? Could they not quietly leave the field of battle and live to fight another day? 

"I'll wish you happy when I am in hell!" Henry seethed. "You think me some old dotard, do you boy? To want no more than infants on my knee, and leave the realm in such unworthy hands as you have shown your whole life yours to be?"

Henry took a step towards them, and Hal instantly inserted his own body between his father and his wife. It did not seem to Nell though that Henry's was a movement made in aggression. As she watched with anxious eyes, he began to shake throughout his body, first his arms, then his torso, and finally his head. His eyes, already shiny with anger, rolled back in his head and foam began form at his mouth as inarticulate noises came from him. Suddenly at a loss for all control, he sank towards the floor as he convulsed.

Hal leapt into action as he saw the old man fall, an anguished "Father!" falling from his lips. He caught Henry just before the king met the floor, lowering him the rest of the way in his strong arms so that he lay mostly in his lap.

"My father, no! What guards! I need some help!" he cried out as he cradled Henry's gaunt body to him. "Come sire, you must calm down, you must be still!"

A frightened looking pair of young men ran into the room, eyes agog at the scene before them. One of them crossed himself superstitiously and took a step back.

"Good lord in heaven, be the king possessed?" he asked. "My prince, should we not send forth for a priest?"

That was all Nell needed to hear. Between the guard's fear of possession and Hal's frozen guilt, she knew she needed to step forward and take charge if the King was to be saved.

"The king is not possessed, mark you to that!" she snapped, calling on all of her young years managing adult men twice her age. "Now we will hear no more such foolish talk. It is a malady that some men have, where they do have such fits from time to time. Go, find out Dr. Hobbs and bring him hear. And if I hear you have spread any word of aught else that might plague his majesty, I swear to you that you will soon be sent to guard an isle in the Hebrides."

The guard looked at her in shock, clearly wondering who she was to so give him orders, but her commanding tone of voice, coupled with a sharp nod from Hal, had him soon sprinting to the door.

"Now, for you two, don't sit there foolishly," she barked at Hal and the second guard, who jumped at being so addressed. "Get him up off the floor and to a bed. And make sure that you lie him on his side. We must make sure his chest dose remain clear."

Glad to have an action to take, Hal stood, his father's upper half carefully in his grasp as the guard quickly took his lower half. On Nell's direction they brought him into the Royal Bedchamber one door away, lying him on his side and propping him up with pillows as he continued to convulse and froth. 

"Go find you out some leather, good and thick," she went on to instruct them. "A belt perhaps, or glove that is nearby."

Hal solved the problem by turning and taking the belt off of the guard, with no objection from him. When he presented this to Nell, she had him pry open Henry's mouth wide enough that she could insert the piece of leather into the king's mouth. This, she hoped would stop him from biting his tongue. She desperately needed Henry not to take any permanent harm from this attack. Hal would never forgive himself if he thought his angry words had brought about his father's suffering.

"What else my love? Please tell us what to do," Hal pleaded, his eyes those of a frightened child as he stared at his father.

"I fear we have done all that we can do," she sighed, wiping her hand across her forehead before turning to the guard. "You, sir, go now and help find Dr. Hobbs. He will know more than I do what is best."

In truth she did not think there was much more they could do, besides ride out the attack and hope for the best. She had seen something similar with a child in village near to their old castle. The poor girl had been playing with others, just as happy as you please, and suddenly been wracked with spasms quite similar to the king's. It had terrified her, but Duncan had calmly knelt down next to the girl as though it was something that happened every day. Not wanting to disappoint her mentor, young Nell had conquered her terror and done all she could to assist him.

"We do not know what causes such a fit," he had told her later. "But nothing under God's life-giving sun will ever make me think that little girl is evil or possessed by some devil. And any that you hear say otherwise, it be your task to tell them they are wrong."

He had dealt with the incident with inherent grace and competence, just as he had every other thing she had seen him do. From time to time over the years he would check on the girl, sometimes bringing Nell with him. The seizures continued, but they never learned the cause or how to prevent them. All she knew to do was keep the patient safe until it had run its course. She knew that such inaction would be hard on her love.

Hal sat by his father's bedside as the spasms slowly gave way. Nell was uncertain if he even knew what he was saying to his proud father as he urged him to wake, to be well. Silently she stood by him, arm coming around to embrace him from behind. He leaned into her and she laid a kiss on the top of his head, praying that the king would be well.

"Two times in just one day, what mean you this?" Dr. Hobbs bustled in, bristling. "My king! Dear God above what happened here?"

"I swear to you I meant no harm to him!" Hal said desperately, rising to his feet.

"King Henry and the prince exchanged some words," Nell added, trying to belay the doctor's shock at Hal's pronouncement. "The King did then begin to shake and froth until he fell him down upon the ground. I sent the guard to fetch you here to us and asked the prince to place him in his bed, head to the side so that he would not drown."

"And even placed a strap between his teeth!" Hobbs noted in surprised respect. "If Henry doth not let your marriage stand but forces young Harry to set you by, come find me lady, and I'll take you in. For few there are who still can keep their heads and act with such swift clarity of thought as you did when the king was taken ill."

"What is it, doctor, that is plaguing him?" Hal asked, ignoring Hobbs' impertinent comment as well as his compliment.

"We do not have a name to give to it," Hobbs hedged.

"But this is not the first time it has happened," Hal suggested.

"I fear tis not. It be not widely known. The king expressly forbid any word should ere be spoke by those who it have seen. I know not what the cause of it may be. It comes on of a sudden, as you saw. Fatigue and stress may sometimes add to it, but are not necessary for a fit."

"And there is naught that we can do for him?" Hal's voice broke as he asked. For all the animosity between the two, Nell could hear the love there are well, see it in Hal's eyes as he gazed at his father.

"No more than let him rest. So get you gone. You have done all that anyone could do. Be glad that you were here when he did fall, or else I might have not made it in time."

"You'll send to me the moment he awakes?" Hal demanded, loath to leave the room.

"That I will, though t'will not be tonight," Hobbs assured him. "And I did mean it Harry, by my hand! You have in this girl here a rarest jewel."

"And well I know it sir, why thing you else that I did risk my father's towering wrath?"

"Well, get you gone, I'll watch over the king."

And just like that they were ushered out of the sick room. As they walked slowly back out to their carriage, still waiting in the courtyard, it was hard for Nell to believe that just a few hours ago she had met him at the church. Now he knew of her condition, the king knew of their marriage. Knew, and disapproved. Nell felt her heart constrict again. King Henry was right. It was Hal's duty to marry for the good of the realm. 

"Before the words can pass your lovely lips," Hal said, shooting her a knowing look, "I must tell you I shall not give you up. If you do say you will not be my queen, then I do swear I'll abdicate my right and give the crown unto my brother Jon. For it is all for you, my dearest wife, that I begin at last to undertake to be deserving of my future throne. You showed me how to rule a house with grace, to set the good of others o'er myself. My life until I met you was a game, wherein I did not seek to show my worth. I was a cad, an undeserving rogue. And though I cannot say that I have now completely set aside my caddish ways, I am however happily content to lavish them entirely on you. I have no need to seek outside my home when all my lecherous dreams reside in you. Then do not seek to leave me, good my wife. I'll hunt you down however far you go and not relent until you take me back."

Nell looked at him, so vulnerable in the wake of his father's illness, yet still so handsome in his wedding attire, and she could not resist his entreaty. Though she knew in her head that it should not be so, her heart would accept no other decision than to fight with him for their union.

"I could not leave you, Hal, you are my heart," she said at last. 

He pulled her blindly to him as she spoke the words, meeting her for a desperate kiss. There was so much need in him, and she threw herself into the embrace, trying to give him the security that was missing at the moment from his world. She only hoped that he would not come to regret his decision. 

So swept up in the kiss was she that she did not even notice when the carriage stopped moving. The door was pulled open by a groom, flooding the inside with light and temporarily blinding her. Hal jumped out, and then scooped her out after him, once more not allowing her to walk. It was going to be a long pregnancy, she thought, if Hal insisted on carrying her everywhere.

"All is prepared for you, as you did ask," a servant was saying, but Hal paid him no mind, making a straight line with his blushing bride for the stairs that would bring them up into his - _their_ \- chambers. 

When they entered the room, Hal, not in the slightest winded from carrying her up the steep steps, kicked the door shut behind them, and tossed her down onto the bed. Nell gave a shriek as she landed with a bounce. Her husband was looking at her with a deliciously devious grin.

"And now, my lovely bride, the time has come," he told her, climbing onto the bed and pushing up her skirts.

Hal's strong arm pressed down her middle as he separated her thighs with his broad shoulders. Closing his eyes he took a deep breath through his nose, inhaling her, and made a growling nose at the scent. As he let out a cool breath across her wet cunt, Nell gave a small cry and he chuckled. Leaning down, he took is time licking over her folds, taking in the proof of her desire for him. Slowly he moved up to her clit, and sucked it into his mouth, using his tongue to further stimulate it. When his long, dexterous fingers joined the onslaught she was lost. Her back arched off the bed, only to be pressed back easily by his superior strength. Her senses were on overload - the wet sounds of his enjoyment as he sucked on her, the feel of his fingers plunging in and out of her, the flick of his tongue over her bundle of nerves, it all combined to drive her over the edge. Nell reached down and grabbed his golden curls, tugging blindly as she fell over the edge, his name crying from her lips as he brought her release.

When she opened her eyes he was smiling at her with a smug satisfaction, eyes fastened on her still trembling body. His own arousal was painfully obvious in the bulge of his hose, and she reached out to pull free his cock, that she might pleasure him as fully as he had done her. Hal intercepted her hands and brought them to his lips.

"All in good time my love, but first things first," he smiled at her lazily. "The servants have prepared a tempting feast, and you my love must have something to eat. The precious life you hold within you craves some nourishment from his lovely mama."

"I hunger for some other thing than food," she pouted, staring at his obvious erection.

"And you shall have it, make no doubt of that," he chuckled, getting up and crossing to the table laden with food that she had not even noticed before. "However you yourself will need your strength for all that I have planned for you tonight. You must forgive me wife, that in my need I chose to sample first of my desert. But come Nell, for my sake I beg you eat. The memory of how you swooned today is not a thing I am like to forget."

Duly chastened, she rose and crossed on shaky legs to the table. Hal's grin of triumph was so much that of a spoiled child that she almost retreated back to the bed, but she was famished, and the food looked heavenly. It was the perfect companion to the devilishly handsome man who held the strawberry even now up to her lips. She was hungry indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Henry IV suffered "acute attacks" of something for the last years of his life that eventually would kill him. Many historians believe that it was Epilepsy. I have used that for the basis of his illness here, though I tried to leave it vague as there is no certainty what his fits were. I freely admit that I have no first hand knowledge of the disease, and apologize if anything I said was incorrect or upsetting.


	22. Wedding Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hal and Nell share a memorable wedding night. Pretty much just smut. Enjoy!!!

Hal ran lightly down the curving staircase, anxious to have his job done so that he could return to the delightfully needy bride he had left in their chambers. It had been painful to leave her, but there were one or two things that he needed to see to before he could devote his full attention to her, and Nell needed to eat. The way she had been licking the sweet fruit compote off of her thumb after sampling the pastry had given him many thoughts, and none of them involved remaining at the dining table... Well, maybe one, he amended his thought with a smile and a stirring in his hose.

As he reached the landing and entered the main hall of his home, he saw his quarry ahead of him. His brother was helping his mother-in-law (heaven help him) into her cloak as they prepared to leave.

"Ho, Jon and Elouise, I prithee, wait," he called to them, pulling their attention his way from whatever talk had had them smiling as though they were the newly married couple.

"Why Hal, I am surprised to see you here," Jon said with a sideways grin. "I thought you would be locked up for a week before we caught so much as sight of you. Has your new bride awoken to the truth and sent you from her side as quick as that?"

"Much to my luck she hath not that much sense," Hal laughed back at him. "I do but come to see that all is done."

"Aye, we have seen to all as you have asked," Jon assured him. "It wants but for the hour you desire."

"Once more you have my thanks then, both of you," he smiled at them. "But err you go, I fear I have some news."

Tone now serious, Hal gave Jon a quick summary of the events of the afternoon. His brother's face paled as he spoke, and by the time Hal's tale was ended he looked thoroughly shaken. Elouise laid a soothing hand on Jon's arm and assumed a look very similar to one Hal had seen before on her daughter's face.

"Then we must go and see to your papa," she said smoothly, taking charge. "He should not be alone after he wakes. I too have seen this type of ill before, and can assist the doctor tending him. Is there a room within the palace grounds where you and I can spend the night my love?"

It rather took Hal aback to see this side of Elouise. He still had a hard time forgiving the woman for her coldness in regards to Nell's fate when she would have wed her daughter to her own lover. He could not deny, however, that her actions towards his brother showed every sign of genuine affection and care.

"I have a suite of rooms of course, my dear," Jon answered her, a worried look on his face. "The palace though is quite a public place, one full of gossip and of prying eyes. If you should chose to slumber with me there I cannot guarantee our privacy. Your name, I fear, could therefore come to harm."

"Tis sweet of you to care for such a thing," she looked at him full of gratitude. "But I am now beyond the care of that. Let wagging tongues let fly what e'er they may, it shall not deter me while you have need. Unless of course you would prefer me stay, and not attach my shame to your good name."

"I would not have you else but by my side," Jon assured her, kissing her forehead. "Go to your bride Hal, we will to the King."

"I must confess tis hard to be from her."

"And harder still, I hope, when she is near," Jon teased him ribaldly. 

"I'll not deny it, and so get you gone!" he said with a groan.

With a brief, fierce hug for his brother and a more delicate kiss of his mother-in-law's cheek in farewell, Hal was sprinting back up the stairs of the tower. Nell should have had time by now to eat the roast pheasant and other delicacies he had arranged for their supper. He did not think he could hold himself back much longer.

"Oh, Hal, my love! Tis good that you are back!" she said as he came bounding into the room. "It seems that I have finished all the fowl. Pray, call the servants and ask them for more. And then perhaps when they are plating it, they might bring up a dish or two of fruit, and maybe then some bread and candied meats. I must, you know, make sure I am well fed, and do not want to scrimp on any food."

It took him a moment to see the ironic glint her eye and realize that she was teasing him for the mountain of provisions he had supplied them with. The oak table still strained under the weight of numerous dishes, including all of the things she had mentioned to him. Narrowing his eyes at her sassy smile, he approached her with determination.

"Thou saucy wench, I'll teach thee so to mock," he growled, lifting her easily out of her chair. "I think, my dear, that thou hast had enough. Now on the bed with thee, thy lord commands!"

"And I obey my lord in everything," she batted her eyes at him fatuously and let out giggling squeal as he tossed her onto the bed.

"Now that is music to my waiting ears," he told her, jumping on the bed and pulling her into his arms. "And I shall hold you to it, darling wife!"

Nell wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him down into a kiss that left no breath free for witty banter. Her body bent to mold to his, pressing against his length. When she drew his lower lip between her teeth and nipped he groaned, loving how assertive she had become in their lovemaking. While he had not lied about loving to have her obey, it also intoxicated him to no end when she was so bold in their coupling.

"But turn around, so I may set you free," he instructed, rolling her onto her stomach so that the tight lacing of her dress was accessible. "I'll take on me the part of maid tonight."

With quick fingers he untied the ribbon, and then slowly slid the laces free of the small holes in the material. His delicate bride made impatient noises beneath him, but Hal was enjoying himself as he watched the stiff dress slowly part to reveal her skin beneath. His fingers skimmed lightly over her, tickling her and adding to her unrest, but he kept her firmly in place beneath him as he undressed her. When at last he finished with the lacing, he pulled the back of the dress apart and allowed her to sit up and slide her arms out of it. 

Naked from the waist up, Nell looked at him from beneath hooded eyes that would have put the most talented courtesan to shame. Hal felt his blood surge downward, and bit his lip to distract from the pain of his erection as he gazed on her. Sliding downward, he grabbed the skirt of her dress and tugged it until she was completely bare and carried it across the room to lay it over the back of a chair. She leaned back on one elbow and watched him as he took a tray from the table and selected a few items for it, bringing it back to the stand beside the bed.

"And is my husband to remain full dressed," she asked in a throaty voice that did unspeakable things to him. 

"Well, I suppose that would not be quite fair," he smiled at her, pulling off his doublet and then making quick work of his hose as well. "And while we speak of fair, I'd have you know, that in the whole of this entire world their could not be a vision fair as you. My own beloved goddess, most divine."

It was true. Her long hair fell down, highlighting rather than concealing her ripe breasts. The soft planes of her stomach were still slender, but the thought that soon they would swell with the child he had planted inside of her filled him with hot anticipation. The golden patch of curls between her legs, still chastely closed, hinted at the riches to be found beneath. He wanted her as he had wanted nothing else in life, and she was his. From today she was his forever.

"Then come and worship me, my faithful one," she beckoned him with one finger.

"I hear and I obey, oh mistress mine," he grinned, covering her body with his own.

Her legs opened automatically to him, and he settled himself between. He could feel the wet heat from her and indulged himself in sliding against it, coating his insistent cock in her desire. She moved beneath him, trying to entice him to enter her. The open need she showed for him took his breath away, and he accommodated her by lining up with her entrance and slowly, wanting feel every glorious moment, pushing himself within. Their moans joined together in time with their bodies, and he wondered anew at how perfectly she fitted him, sheath to his sword.

"The moment I first felt myself in you I knew that I had found my truest home," he told her, panting as he began to thrust into her. 

Nell's legs came up to wrap around his body, altering the angle so that his coarse hairs dragged along her bundle of nerves. Her body clung to his, mouth finding his neck, then teeth his shoulder as they increased their pace, stark need driving them deeper. He wound her glorious hair around his hand, tugging slightly and making her moan, revealing her throat to his mouth. 

"My love, I fear I'm close, cum with me Nell," he entreated her, praying he could hold out long enough.

Her nails raked down his back as he brought his fingers to her clit. She was so deliciously tight, so lewdly vocal as she moaned out his name for him. Just when he could hold out no longer he felt her clench around him as her climax hit, pulling his from him at last.

They lay tangled in each other for a time, breath returning to normal as he dropped soft kisses randomly onto her skin. Nell's fingers traced lazy patterns down his hot skin as her legs slowly fell back down to the bed. A dreamy smile spread over her face.

"Have I told you how much I do love you?" she asked him at last as he rolled off of her to one side.

"Nay just how much my wife? I long to know!" he teased her, smiling down.

"So much that even when there comes a time that I do long to throttle you, my lord," she told him sweetly, "as very oft I find that so I do, yet even still I long to kiss you more."

"Well heaven keep you in so kind a mind," he laughed. Reaching over to the tray he had brought, Hal plucked up a wine glass and took a swallow. "Be you thirsty wife? I brought some wine."

"My husband is most clever! Yes indeed!" she replied.

Hal held the goblet to her lips and helped her drink. When she had her fill, he took the cup and slowly poured a small trickle onto her breasts, enjoying the way she gasped and started as he did. Setting the cup aside, he lowered his head and licked the wine off, sucking on her breast to make sure he had gotten it all. The little gasping noises she made were music to him, and he repeated the action on the other side, laughing at her response to the cold hitting her nipple. 

When at last he had cleaned her of the wine, he smiled at how obviously aroused she was becoming again. Grinning, he went back to his tray and found the honey. Dipping two fingers in, he scooped out some of the golden liquid and, with a cheeky grin, reached down to smear it over his quickly rehardening length.

"Hungry love? I brought you some dessert," he offered, lying down on his back.

"Well, who am I to turn down suck a treat," she giggled, scooting down the bed until she was sitting between his bent knees.

Never taking her eyes from his, she licked a long, wide stripe up the underside of his cock, making a lewd noise of appreciation as she did. Hal laughed as she reached over herself and scooped up more honey, liberally coating his sex with the sticky substance. He shuddered in pleasure as her mouth descended on him, taking him in as deeply as she could, sucking the honey from him. After moving up and down him and working him with her tongue, she slowly drew her lips from around him and let him free with a pop. With a pensive hum, she then lowered her head still more to lick up the trails of honey that had made their way down to his balls, gently cleaning them of the sweet substance. By the time she returned to his head and took it in her mouth again, he was so aroused that it was all he could do not to rut blindly into her throat. 

"Siren!" he gasped in heat, pulling free of her hot mouth with difficulty and heaving her up his body. "My wanton strumpet, sit on me!" he commanded, lifting her up and impaling her on his hard cock.

Nell shook her hair back from her face and arched her back, her magnificent breasts thrust forward. Seizing the opportunity, Hal slathered them quickly with the honey and sucked on them for dear life as she bounced up and down on him, chasing her pleasure. He would leave her covered in love marks he knew, but as he didn't intend on letting her out of the room for some days, he forbore to worry.

"That's it, my darling wife, come, ride me Nell!" he urged her on, lightly slapping the side of her ass and then grabbing her hips to assist her as he thrust up into her. 

He could hear her breath quickening, and held his eyes open so that he could watch her fall apart. Her eyes rolled back and closed, body arching in a taught, graceful bow as she tensed around him, mouth wide and crying. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

Growling with lust, Hal flipped her over so that he was on top once more and instantly began pounding into her. The slide of her body against his was slick with sweat, and sticky with honey. The slapping noise as their bodies met joined his grunts as he felt his thighs begin to tighten. With a shout ripped from his soul he felt himself throb within her, shooting rope upon rope of his seed deep into her womb.

She was exhausted, he could tell. Her body lay limp and sated next to his on the bed, a smile tilting her lips.

"That was something new, my darling Hal," she said dreamily.

"I dearly hope so, love, and liked you it?" he asked, laughing weakly.

"Tis now I think my favorite dessert," she grinned at him.

"I'm glad that I could please you so, my dear."

"You please me every way that I could wish," she told him, making his heart soar. "Though I could wish the stickiness were less."

"Ah, fear not, Nell, your groom hath thought of that!" he told her triumphantly. 

Despite his weariness, he rose from the bed and once more lifted her protesting into his arms. He found he liked carrying her, and although she always grumbled, he suspected she did not mind it so much either. Ignoring her questions, he proceeded to the small staircase and carried her, to naked, the top of the tower. It was chilly, but the stars and moon shone brightly overhead. In the center of the round floor, hidden by the crenulations that ringed turret, was a large tub filled with fragrant, steaming water.

"What is this? Hal love, what have you done?" she asked as he gently lowered her into the tub.

"I thought after so long a day, my love, you might desire a bath to ease your limbs."

Walking to the edge of the tower, Hal sharply clapped his hands twice. By the time he had crossed back to the tub, the soft strains of a lute began wafting upwards from the courtyard below, followed by a lovely tenor voice. Nell stared at him in delighted surprise as she lounged back in the hot water. Smiling, he took a dipper of water from the pot hanging over the small fire next to it and poured it into the tub, heating it for her.

"I can't believe you did all this for me," she said, eyes glowing.

"I must admit I did not do it all. The moon and all the stars supplied the light," he demurred, but then his eyes became serious. "There is nothing I would not do for you."

"Then, Hal, I bid you join me in the tub. For if I have you I have all the world."

"I thought my love that you would never ask," he grinned, and happily joined her in the warm, soothing bath.


	23. Visitors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nell receives some less than welcome visitors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Sorry this took a little longer than usual. We've had some distracting things going on this week, but hopefully they are calming down now. Hope you enjoy!

Nell sat on the wall overlooking the inner courtyard of the house, eyes glued to the figures battling below. For the life of her she could not make out any concessions the combatants were making to safety. It looked for all the world as though they were actually trying to kill each other. Still, Hal had assured her that short of a bruise or a pulled muscle no harm would come to him, and it was exciting to watch him fight.

She had never been one of those women to lust after warriors, but then she had never seen a warrior quite like her husband before. Hal's tall, lithe body made the deadly moves seem more like a dance, the sword an extension of his arms. There was a catlike grace in it that she found unexpectedly arousing, although why it should surprise her she didn't know. Everything her new husband did seemed to arouse her.

Hal had not been joking when he threatened to keep her locked in their rooms for the start of their marriage. For the first week they had left only a handful of times, and even then he had kept possession of her hand, or and arm firmly wound about her. Her trips to the privy were the only moments she had been out of his presence. The rest of the time had been delightfully filled with romance, food, or just sharing silly tales of their childhoods. 

Finally, after a week had past, her insatiable husband had sighed that he did have some responsibilities that could not be neglected, even for so tempting a distraction as his bride. It seemed he took his duties more seriously than she would have guessed, sitting on several councils in London, seeing to the needs of his lands scattered throughout the kingdom, and keeping up a grueling workout regimen.

Nell had responsibilities of her own, but made time to watch him with the last, as seeing him work up a sweat tended to do the same for her. She knew from the last two days that when he had finished below he would wink at her, and raise his eyes to their rooms, racing to meet her there. She would take great delight in stripping his armor from him and bathing that overworked body, kissing every last sore spot that he had acquired in his training. She rather fancied he made some of them up, but she was not complaining.

"You Highness," the low voice of Cecil, Hal's major domo, sounded behind her making her start, "there's a visitor at hand."

"A visitor? We had not planned on one." 

She was still not used to hearing herself address with a royal title, and blushed every time one of Hal's servants did so. This dour man especially made her feel the merest rustic. She could not believe that he could approve of her.

"Tis only young Ned Poins, so please you ma'am," he shrugged. "An intimate longstanding of the prince. He often calls at any hour of day."

"The prince is at the moment occupied," Nell said, wincing as Hal took a particularly hard blow, "but since he is so good a friend to Hal, pray send him up and I will see to him."

Nell spared a brief moment of regret for her appearance. She had not planned on going out today, and their own household, even now combined, must be used to her ways by now. She was dressed in her boys garb. She was more comfortable this way, and Hal seemed to be partial to the look. Hopefully this Ned Poins would not take disgust at so casual dress, but if he was truly a good friend of Hal's she could not imagine him being so particular about such things. She had to admit that she did not look forward to meeting someone who had been so integral in Hal's wilder days.

"So you, I take it, are the little wife. I now begin to see the reason why our Hal hath been a truant these long days."

The young man walking towards Nell set her on edge from the instant she saw him. His hair, lank brown, hung down about a sharp, sallow face. Brown, keen looking eyes were rimmed by dark circles and shot through with red, and his clothing was rich but disheveled. All in all he looked thoroughly dissipated for one of his youth. And this was an intimate of Hal's?

"I am, good sir. My name is Eleonore, but all my friends do call me simply Nell," she said, shoving down her unease as she rose to offer up her hand. The man kissed it with practiced flair that was almost mocking. "I hear you are a friend of my dear lord."

"More brother than a friend, I blush to say," Ned smiled. "I'm sure he's told you many tales of me."

"Some, yes, although I think that most of them, from little things that he has let slip out about your wild exploits in the past, are not the sort of things one tells one's bride."

She hated that she sounded so prim, but everything she had heard of Hal's time with Ned was the part of his life she feared the most. The thoughtless, bullying exploits they had pulled on those of lower rank did not sit well with her. And, of course, she knew that this man was Hal's partner in carousing the alehouses and brothel's of London. She did not blame him for her husband's coarse past, but nor did she like to be reminded of it.

"It is a very wise wife that doth know that there be things a husband should not tell," Poins said with a sage grin. "For what concern should such things be to you, as long as he doth keep them from your eyes."

"You misconstrue me sir, I meant not so, that Hal should keep from me his future acts," she replied tartly. "But only that such follies of his youth, that he partook in ere we two did meet, need not upset our happy current peace."

"Why is our rapscallion so far reformed? Then tis a miracle and God be praised! For your sweet sake I hope it may be true, but leopards they do say change not their spots. And so I hope you be not too upset when he doth wander back to his old ways. You have acquired the title of Princess, and weighed against so great an honor won, what is an indiscretion now and then?"

"It looks as though they have now called a halt," she said tightly, noting that the clanging of metal had ceased. "Come, I will take you down to where he is."

"There is no need, for certs I know the way," he smiled thinly, and with a quick bow turned and walked towards the stairs. 

Nell followed quickly after him, fighting to compose her face into softer lines, not wanting to show her quick dislike, bordering on hatred, of Hal's friend. Her husband, sweat drenched but laughing with his master of arms, looked up as they came down into the yard, his smile at seeing his wife dimming for a so brief a moment Nell thought she must have imagined it as his eyes lit upon Poins. 

"What, Ned? We did not think to see you here," Hal said with a tight smile, brushing his damp hair from his forehead. "I see that you have met my darling wife."

Reaching out, Hal caught Nell's arm and pulled her tightly against his body. She squirmed a bit, suddenly finding herself being embraced by a metal clad arm. Still, after the slithery comments Poins had tossed off before, it felt good to be reminded of Hal's affection for her.

"We have begun to know each other well," Ned smiled. "And I do hope to know her better yet."

"Not too well, thank you Ned, an if you please," Hal's voice was dampening as his fingers dug into Nell's arm. "But tell me, what doth bring you to our house?"

"Perhaps you two would like some time along," Nell suggested, wanting to be anywhere but around this obnoxious friend of her husband's. "Why don't you, husband, go upstairs and change, your friend can go along and wait for you."

"I'd much prefer to have you help me sweet," he purred into her ear, sending a wave of desire through her.

"Oh, come now Hal, tis been more than a week," Poins laughed. "You must be over bedding her by now!"

"I'll just go see refreshments may be brought," she said quickly before he could answer. "Now go, and do not let me hold you up."

With a reluctant look, Hal bent down to kiss her slowly, hand running up her back as he did. For a few sweet moments she forgot that they were not alone and leaned wantonly into the embrace. All too soon it was over, and he raising each of her hands to his lips before trudging off with a smirking Ned to their rooms.

"I've never cared o'er much for that young man." Nell spun to see Cecil standing behind her. How the man managed to sneak up on her every time she had no idea. "The likes of him did often hang about before the prince did meet you some time back. It hath been good to see him break away from such rude boys and men of ill repute. You have, I think, brought out his better side, if I may be so bold to say it, ma'am."

Nell stared at Cecil as he gave what she was coming to realize was his version of a smile. Tentatively she smiled back, realizing in surprise that she had an ally in the man.

"I'll go and see the prince is brought some wine," Cecil told her, pulling back into himself. "And hopefully he soon bids Poins adieu."

Nell smiled walked out of the practice yard. It seemed she was at loose ends. She had no idea what to do with herself. It had been some time since she had been alone, and suddenly she longed to be at home, able to stride out into the wood and ramble at will where ever she chose. Hal had spoken the other night of a wedding trip, perhaps she could convince him to go someplace more rustic, where she would not be so hemmed in by propriety and safety concerns.

A pounding at the gate grabbed her attention, and she changed her direction to see who now was at their door. She arrived to find half a dozen men in red livery, swords at their sides, being escorted quickly inside. The gateman was scrambling to accommodate them, babbling that he would quickly go to seek his mistress.

"No need to seek, Nathaniel, I am here," she said, stepping forward. 

The leader of the strange guardsmen, a tall, sinewy man of middle years, turned to her and gave a crisp bow.

"You are the Lady Eleonore D'Amboise, who lately wed unto the Prince of Wales?" he asked in formal tones, eyes flickering in disapproval over her boy's clothes.

"I am good sir, what would you have of me?"

"You shall, My Lady, come along with us," he instructed, not making it a request.

"And where, I pray you, is it that we go?" she asked, not moving a step.

"My Lady Nell, do you not know that crest?" her gateman asked quickly, agitation clear in his voice.

"Nay, I do not, but I know curtesy," she snapped, not liking the way they were all looking at her. Her nerves had been put on edge by Poins, and this additional intrusion into her peace did not sit well with her. "This is my home, I'll suffer no commands, unless they come from my husband alone. Who else would dare to give me orders here?"

"Your Highness, these are soldiers of the King," Nathaniel told her. "Their orders carry all of the throne's weight. Forgive her sir, she is but new to town. You must, My Lady, go along with him."

"Indeed it seems I must, forgive me sir," she blanched, all of her haughty indignation leaving her at once. "Permit me just to go and change my dress."

"Our orders are to bring you in at once," the guardsman said brusquely. "We have not time to spare for your toilette."

"I must at least alert my husband sir, lest that my absence leave him in alarm."

"Your man can see to that, now come your ways. We've been already too long at this chore."

"Nathaniel, see his Highness is informed," she quickly told the man, "and bid him if he would come join seek me out, for I will need his escort home again."

"Aye that I will my Lady, count on me!" the gatekeeper assured her, on impulse taking off his burgundy cloak and handing it to her. "Perhaps it shall be chilly ere you're back."

No longer able to stall, Nell allowed herself to be escorted from her home, thankful for the man's kindness. It was a balmy day, but the cloak allowed her to cover most of her unconventional attire. That it was also in Hal's color gave her a sense of security as she trotted along in the center of the group of armed men.

She could not begin to think why she was being summoned in such abrupt fashion to the court. From the brief note they had received from Dr. Hobbs, expounded upon by another from Jon and her mother, she knew that the King seemed to be fully recovered from his illness. She knew Hal also had a man at court particularly watching to make sure that his father did not suffer any ill effects, and that they would have been sent word at the least bit of trouble.

Did this mean, she wondered, that the trouble was she herself? Could it be possible that, now that he had had time to recover and consider it fully, King Henry had decided after all to try and dissolve their marriage? Hal insisted he would not, but Nell could not be so sure. He was a proud man, and even more than her less than regal birth she knew the King was offended by the fact that she and Hal had openly defied him. Was this borderline clandestine summons an attempt to separate her from him, that she could be more easily bundled off to some remote location, Hal none the wiser?

She was beginning to panic she realized, and forced herself to remain calm. There was no reason to suspect the worst. Even if it was the King's plan to be rid of her, Hal would not abide it. Nathaniel would tell him where she had gone, and he would race to secure her release. Why, even now he could be but moments behind them, riding to her rescue.

Unless, of course, Poins was correct and he was beginning to tire of her. That had obviously been the point of all of his thinly veiled thrusts at her. The man clearly was jealous of her place in Hal's life, and his ouster from it. No, she would trust in her husband, in the love that they shared. Nothing in his manner had given her to believe that he was anything but besotted. Why, even his leaving of her had been heated to the point that she feared they would disgrace themselves in front of his guest.

Hal would come. All would be well. There was no need worry. But maybe, just maybe, a little worry was understandable none the less. 


	24. The Missing Bride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hal confronts his past behavior with Poins, and discovers the abduction of his darling wife.

If he clenched his jaw any harder Hal was convinced all of his teeth would break. This was not at all how he had anticipated the afternoon proceeding. The warm bath that he had so looked forward to sharing with his eager wife was bordering on cold, and instead of her soft moans his ears were being assaulted with a steady string of mindless prattle from Ned Poins.

Ned, who was by some reckoning his closest companion. Who definitely was the his most frequent co-conspirator and partner in crime. How that had come to be the case, Hal was having a difficult time remembering now, for he found the steady stream of malicious gossip and cruel innuendo falling from the other man's lips grating to him. A month or two ago Hal would have been laughing at his latest conquest of some poor, unsuspecting baker's wife. Ned had managed to convince the woman that he wanted to run away with her in order to bed her, only to deny any such plans when her husband caught them, mid tryst. Now, Hal merely felt sorry for the poor woman. Her life had been ruined simply because she had a nice pair of breasts that had managed to catch the wandering eye of a bored noble.

A blessed silence stretched as Hal quickly washed himself, regretting it was not Nell's hands wandering over his body, all soapy and searching. He gave a soft sigh at the thought, his cock half heartedly twitching, and was met with a snort of derision. Looking up, he saw Ned was staring at him with shuttered, cynical eyes.

"I'll give you this, your wife's a pretty piece," Poins said, a twist of his lips substituting for a smile, "though not, for me, enough to risk a ring. Was wedding her in truth the only way that she would open up her legs to you? If so, I hope the prize was worth the price, for to my mind she's a controlling wench."

"I'll tell you once the same I told the king," Hal said, rising from the tub, naked and dripping, and crossing to tower over his friend in anger, "I will not hear a word against her Ned. Nell is my wife, and I do love her well. You would be wise to bear that thought in mind, or this my first will see to it you learn."

"A thousand pardons Hal, I meant no harm!" Ned replied quickly, raising both hands in defense and stepping back. "I see you are much taken with her now. Though I profess to hear you speak of love, and have the words be so sincerely meant, doth hardly reconcile with my old friend."

"I do suppose you have some cause in that," Hal was forced to admit, as he snatched up a bath sheet and began toweling himself dry. "When I think now of what my life hath been, and how I so mistreated the fair sex, I do begin to almost hate myself."

"Mistreat them? Hal, I hardly would say that!" Ned laughed. "For I was near at hand as oft as not, and from the sounds you brought forth out of them, those ladies that you tumbled for a night had nothing to complain of in your bed!"

Hal cursed himself for thinking that Ned would understand what he was saying. He did not mean that he had hurt the women, heaven forbid! Nor even that he had not done his best to make sure that they came away from the encounter thoroughly satisfied. It was just that he had never given a one of them any thought once the random coupling had ended. He had never wondered if they pined for him, or if he was getting in the way of a relationship that might bring them more joy in the long term. Short of doing his best to ensure that their were no royal bastards to follow him about, he had taken his pleasure without any further worry.

"I hope that you are right, but who can say?" was all he answered now, knowing it was useless to share his thoughts with the other.

"Well, I am going now to Jocelyn's," Ned said, laying back on Hal's bed with a groan. "Her babe at last is weaned, so now's my chance. Perhaps I'll ask her for you, if you like, if she did feel disgraced by your hand."

Apparently Ned thought this a capital joke from the way he laughed. Hal managed a grimace that passed for a smile and began dressing absentmindedly. Jocelyn was a lusty woman, and ran a thriving brothel. She was not the type that Hal had been worrying over hurting. All the same, he wished Ned would show her some respect.

"No doubt you will have other things to say," Hal suggested with a raised eyebrow, "and will not need to fall back on my name."

"Oh I do not plan to say much at all! My mouth shall be much happier employed. But come, shall you go with me good sweet prince? I hear she has a new girl in her house, a redhead with an ardency to match. I'm sure the girl would count it quite a coup if she could snare a prince into her bed."

"I have no need for whores, I thank you Ned. I am, if you recall, a man now wed."

"Well yes, I know that you did take a wife," Ned looked at him in almost comical alarm, "but surely that need not affect you much. Nell need not know whereto we two are bound, tis not like she will hear it from your whore! And I should think she may think it relief that she must not see to your needs today."

"You do not mark me, so I'll say it plain. There will from now be no more whores for me. I fear you must seek for another man to bear you company in your pursuits."

"But Hal, you must be playing at some jest - you surely do not mean you plan to be a faithful husband to your loving wife?"

"Yet that is just exactly what I mean," he nodded. "Now that the gods have granted me my heart, I would not put such happiness at risk by wasting of my time with random whores or ladies who would cast themselves at me. I want but one fair damsel in my bed, and much to my eternal wonderment, that woman is none other than my wife."

Ned stared at him in stunned disbelief. Hal knew that he deserved no less, and once more felt his shame rise. He could not truly fault Poins. Even discounting Hal's reputation as a rake, very few men of his rank were completely faithful to their wives. He supposed it came with the territory when most marriages were arranged more for money and alliances than for affection. He was a man most blessed that his life's companion was the owner of his very soul.

"My lord, my lord! I must see you at once!" Cecil demanded, barging into the room in a most undignified fashion quite at odds with his usual reserved bearing.

"What is it man? Here, sit and catch you breath," he instructed as his man doubled over and wheezed. 

"There is no time, her Highness, Princess Nell..." Cecil gasped out, causing Hal's heart to stop beating.

"What Nell? Why what is wrong? Sir, speak to me!" he demanded, fear like a cold finger on his spine. "Is it the babe? Has she come to some harm?"

"No, no my prince, tis not as bad as that," Cecil hastened to assure him. "A troop of guard appeared here at our gate, and did insist that she should go with them!"

"What, take her from her home? I'll kill them all! Where were our own men that they stopped them not?"

"Your grace, she went with them of her own will, for they were dressed in colors of the king, and his own sigil did bedeck their breasts! Only the gateman knew what did occur until she had acceded to their will. Poor lad, he is beside himself in fear that he did put her life somehow at risk."

Hal began littering the air with every curse he knew. There had been no direct word from his father since their frightful encounter on his wedding day, and the lack of condemnation had lulled him into a false sense of security. It had never occurred to him that Henry would do something so extreme as to send armed guards to abduct Nell from their home! What could he possibly hope to gain by doing any such thing?

"Have Strumpet saddled for me straight away," he commanded Cecil, pulling his boots on as he spoke. "I ride at once to see our revered king. I hope he has some reason for this act, as patricide is still a grievous sin. But if he has caused any harm to her, I will not answer for my own reply."

"Your horse is waiting for you in the yard. It was not hard to think what you would do."

"I thank you, Cecil. Ned, I bid you well. You must excuse me, for I now depart."

"I would not think to keep you from your bride," Ned said with an odd voice Hal could not quite place, but thought might contain humor. He supposed seeing him cast as the avenging husband might seem humorous to someone else. To himself it was deadly serious.

Cecil was as good as his word, and Hal's favorite horse was saddled and waiting for him. It took him very little time to ride to the palace. Even were he not known on sight through most of London, one look at his furious face was enough to clear all out of his path. When he arrived at the castle, he threw his reins to a random groom and stormed inside, beating a path for the presence chamber. Not waiting to be announced, he thrust open the doors and barged inside.

"Where is she sir, for I will have her back!" he hurled the words at the old man sitting on the throne like a spear.

Henry, who until that moment had been in deep conversation with his master of coin, started in his seat as though a dragon had burst into his throne room, and indeed Hal looked like one. When he realized the accosting person was in fact his eldest son, his face turned red and his eyes lit with rage. Still, his voice was clam and cutting as he addressed Hal.

"You should be whipped for lack of manners, boy. Do you not know to whom it is you speak? How dare you come before us in such state, and so abuse our royal presence thus?"

"Forgive me if I do not curtsey, sir," Hal sneered, as the gathered court looked on in shock. "Perhaps if you had not kidnapped my wife I might have time for courtliness and grace."

"Has all the sac you drink gone to your brain?" his father demanded, glaring at him. "Why, tell me boy, would I abduct your wife?"

"Why that you must tell me, for I know not!"

"And do you see her here, you foolish sot? I have not set my eyes upon the girl since I did see you both the day you wed."

"Is this the truth? You did not send for her?"

"I have no need to lie to you, you wretch! In truth I have done all that I could do to put the two of you far from my mind!"

"Then this is even worse than I did fear!"

Hal was completely lost now. When he thought that his father had taken Nell, he had feared for their future, but never for her physical safety. Say what you would about Henry, and Hal had, but he was not a threat to women. The worst he had imagined was that his father intended to ship her off to a convent and dissolve their union. If it was someone else... the possibilities were as dark as they were endless.

"What put it in your head that I had her?" Henry's voice sounded begrudgingly concerned.

"The gateman said that guards did come for her, dressed in the livery of your own house."

"Flat lies, and that you can see for yourself! Why, you have known Renaldo all your life and here he stands as he has done all day. If I had sent my men on such a task as would require discretion in to be done, as to abduct my son's wife from their home, think you I would entrust it not to him?"

Hal had to admit his father had a point. Renaldo had been with them since Hal was a boy, as faithful to Henry as he was circumspect. His father was far too fussy to allow such an act as Hal was accusing him of to be done in a way to cause talk among the public. If he had sent for Nell, it would have been Renaldo that retrieved her.

Hal's mind spun. It made no sense. Who would want to take Nell? Could it be Northumberland, angry at the cancelled wedding? Or perhaps the Earl of Kent who he had provoked at the market? He could not think clearly, not when the dearest person on the globe was in such peril.

"But said your man that they were dressed as us?" Renaldo asked now, voice sounding almost concerned as he looked at Hal with searching eyes. "What men would have free access to our garb? My men are quartered close unto the king, and only one admitted to those rooms could hope to take one jerkin, far less six"

Six. They had been dressed in uniforms of Henry's household. And their had been six of them. Slowly, Hal lowered his head into his hands and laughed an almost unhinged laugh.

"I am as foolish, Sire, as you think," he said, shaking his head. "I pray you all, forget this freakish start. I did not mean to so disrupt your day. I'll leave you now and cause no more discord."

"I am, I think, an explanation owed," Henry said in a wry voice. "You do, I take it, know who has your wife?"

"I do believe I do, and if I'm right, they shall regret the day they hatched their plan."

"Renaldo then shall go along with you," Henry surprised Hal by saying. "She is, for now, a member of my house, and as such we cannot allow insult. When you have her extracted from this mess, I will expect you all to return here. I have some words which I would say to thee."

Hal did not miss the formal tone on the end of his father's decree, but for now he had more important matters to attend to. The pieces had fallen into place, and he was reasonably certain that he knew just where he would find Nell. Heaven help the men when he got there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My sincere apologies that this chapter took so long. Family matter made it impossible to write last week. However, I am now back home and working away at this story! 
> 
> Also, while I had planned on this ending with chapter 25, it seems that Hal & Nell had other plans for themselves, and it will now be a few more chapters before they have get happy ending.
> 
> Thanks for all your patience!


	25. A Den of Reprobates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nell is taken to answer for marrying Hal, but not to where she expected.

It took about five minutes before Nell began to realize something was wrong. Before that, her mind had been too concerned with trying to reason out what the king would want with her. She knew he disapproved of her marriage to Hal of course, but why act on that now? It had been almost two weeks and he had not lifted a finger to part them. Surely he must realize that the more time they spent together, the more firmly cemented their union would appear to the church and, just as importantly, the French king.

She was also fretting about what Hal's reaction would be upon finding her gone. Her husband was normally a rational, intelligent man, but she had seen what happened when he felt those that he loved were being threatened. Why, just look at the dust up with Kent at the market! She could just see him now, storming into the king's chambers with no thought for manners or who might be present to witness his breach of etiquette . She just prayed he did nothing irrevocable, nothing so treasonous that he landed in the Tower as a result.

It was not until they had gotten a ways from her home that it began to dawn on her that the direction they were heading seemed incorrect. She did not know London well of course, and she had been rather distracted on her previous trips to and from the palace, but she was fairly certain it was not their destination. Instead of large houses and high-end establishments, the streets she was marched down were becoming more and more comprised of middle class shops.

When she ventured to suggest as much to the guard leading them down the rutted lane, she was treated to a brusque, quelling retort that just skirted the edge of being a threat were to speak again. It did not seem like how a well trained royal retainer would address a Princess, no matter how out of the king's grace she might be.

Her next clue came when she finally took a good look at her escorts. The uniforms themselves were in well made, if a touch wrinkled, but they seemed oddly ill fitting. The man to her left had sleeves that reached only part way down his forearms, and the one to her right was obviously too slight for the voluminous clothes he wore. Their weapons as well were suspiciously mismatched. Only the two in front had proper swords, the rest carried knives, and in one case a staff.

All of this led her to the obvious conclusion that these "royal guards" were no such thing. Who they were or where they might be taking her, she had no idea. She knew that the deception should be making her more afraid - the king would not _physically_ harm her - but for some reason she felt only a wave of relief. Brigands or mercenaries hired by their enemies she had no doubt she and Hal could defeat. The power of the English crown she had less confidence in thwarting. Silently she thanked Hal's over protective streak for the dagger he had gifted her with, a humorous present considering she had also bought one for him. She could feel it now in a small sheath inside her soft boot. He had been giving her occasional lessons in using it as well, and though those had mainly devolved into his cutting open her clothing, at least she knew how to hold the blade correctly. Small solace against six armed men, but she would take any help should could get.

They had by this point entered into an area of London she knew she had never visited before. Her doting husband would never have brought her into such a squalid, dangerous looking neighborhood. The smells alone, an acrid mixture of body odor and refuse, were enough to have her head swimming a bit. Boarded over windows and derelict looking drinking houses lined the muddy street, and grimy men reeled back and forth at random across the way. 

At last they stopped at the largest of such public houses they had yet to pass, and their leader banged on the ill hung door. A slot in the wood opened, and he exchanged a few words with a person inside in voices too low for her to hear. He seemed to satisfy the door keep, for the ponderous gateway swung open, and a blast of warm, stale air loud with raised voices washed out.

"This way my lady, get you now inside," the guard grunted at her, hand on his sword hilt.

"Strange place to find his Majesty the King," she remarked with a side eye as she walked past him as haughtily as she could manage in her brother's altered clothes and a quickly borrowed cloak.

A raucous scene greeted them, with loud, sweaty men talking in animated voices over pots of sac and ale. None of them paid much notice to the newcomers in their midst, as Nell was quickly herded to the back of the room and through a door into a smaller, quieter chamber.

Her eyes blinked, adjusting to the low light as she took in her new surroundings. A few trestle tables with stools lined either wall, now deserted except for a small handful of disreputable looking men and one or two ladies of dubious virtue. All of them had tankards to hand, and stopped speaking expectantly as she was ushered into the room. Their eyes took her in, and then as one turned to the raised platform at one end of the room where sat a rotund man.

He was patently ridiculous, from his stained red robe that strained ponderously over his girth, to the bristling beard that jutted out like a sac soaked battering ram from his chin. Beady, watery eyes regarded her from beneath two bushy eyebrows as she was thrust forward to stand in the center of the room. Most absurd of all was the circle of metal, a broken flower pot unless she missed her guess, that sat atop his head like child's toy crown.

"Do you just stand there then? Have you no knee?" he demanded in a sonorous voice only slightly slurred with drink. "Is this how you would come before your king?"

Nell's eyes blink rapidly as she struggled to keep in her laughter. Was this reprobate really expecting her to believe him King Henry? Just thinking about the true king's spare, aesthete frame in comparison to the corpulence of this sot was enough to urge her to giggles.

"Forgive me Sire, for my unmeant slight," she managed to get out, sinking down to one knee. "I was in shock to find you in such place."

"Ah, well, my child that doth make some small sense," he allowed, stroking his beard sagely. "My habits must perforce be closely kept. If more should know that I do come this way to sample me some truly princely sac, I never would find refuge from the court."

"So this house be your grace's sanctum then. What wisdom doth your Majesty possess to find so an unlooked for house to bless with your august and kingly patronage."

The fat man preened under Nell's slathered on flattery, and she inwardly rolled her eyes. What on earth had she stumbled into here? The people seated on either side of her were guffawing into their hands and elbowing each other as they looked on as at a play. She only wished she knew her part! She would have to tread carefully. She sensed no real malice in the man seated before her, but the chaotic energy in the room was strong.

"You are most wise to see such wisdom, girl," he beamed. "Stand up, stand up, a seat for the Princess!"

A reed thin man with a red bulbous nose hastened forward with a stool that Nell gratefully sat down on. It was a bit wobbly, but then so were her legs at the moment, and it brought her hand closer to her booted blade.

"So you are she young Hal has dared to wed," the "king" mused, looking her up and down. "I fear that I must tell you, little girl, that in this he did gravely fall to sin, for he consulted not with me, his father!"

"I beg thy pardon, humbly my liege," she said, trying to imbue her voice with repentance. "The one excuse that I can make to thee is that we two did fall so quick in love that prudent thought flew headlong from our minds."

One of the women sitting to her left let out a wistful sigh, and Nell resisted the urge to smile. It did sound like a romantic story, and indeed it was so! She just hoped their ringleader was one for romance.

"A lame and paltry reason for such crime!" he huffed, crushing her hopes. "It would serve you two ingrates fairly right if I should now declare the wedding void!"

"My King, I beg you not to be so cruel! I do profess that I do love your son more than the stars do love the nighttime sky!"

"Have pity Jack, the girl be sick in love!" the woman who had sighed shouted out. "And who could blame her, knowing our dear prince!"

"It could be, I concede, she speaks the truth," the bearded mammoth stared at her again. "You swear then, girl that you did wed for love? And not for some scheme to possess his wealth? Or for some foul desire to advance? A villain may yet wear a pretty face, and still a heart of evil hold inside. I would not have my only first born son be married to so base a thieving wench!"

Against her better judgement, Nell's heart went out to the man. He was absurd and offensive in almost every way, but she was convinced that his concern for Hal was genuine. She was fairly certain she knew who this man was now, for he had figured into the stories Hal had let slip to her of his wild exploits. If she was right, it went some way to explain his fear that she had trapped Hal into a disastrous marriage. It was, after all, the kind of thing he himself would do. His methods might be beyond the pale, but she thought a genuine concern for Hal was at the heart of his prank.

"I do not know how I may so convince as great a person as your Majesty," she said, looking up at him with eyes as clear and honest as she could make them. "All I can do is say to you again - I love your son and always will be true. Since first I looked upon him on the ground, where he had fallen and took injuries, he hath been all my world and all my heart. I want no riches, do despise the court, (though no offense to you, all mighty king). If Hal should be a barber and pull teeth, I still would want no other for my lord. You may divide us from each other, Sire, as is your right as sovereign of our land. But even if you separate our hands, my heart will still forever remain true. On that you have my solemn, holy oath."

Nell did not know what had come over her. It was as though this farce of a trial before a fake Henry had shaken loose all of the things she wished she had said to the real king. She had been fretting silently for weeks over the very thing that she was now thrust into a crude representation of. Giving vent to all of that fear somehow dispelled a portion of it from herself, and she found she was standing taller, less worried that some cruel twist of fate was about to tear her from her love.

"My dearest girl, I must say you do speak well," the man said, dabbing surreptitiously at his eyes with a soiled handkerchief. "And it doth fill my heart with much content that Hal hath found a wife who suits him so. It would not do, you see, if he should wed a money grubbing gal who sought to curb his meager spending on his closest friends."

"I never would curtail such blessed alms," Nell grinned, realizing that this too was behind the man's blandishments. A fear for his benefactor's defection.

"Why you are a right decent, honest wench! Come, sit and drink a cup of sac with me!"

"I would with all my heart, believe me sir. But I did leave the house precipitously, and had no time to give my husband word. He must be frantic searching now for me."

"Why, as to that, it will do him some good. The boy is far too cocksure for my taste. A bit of fear will do his humor good, when you are then returned to his house. He will take greater care of you from hence! Now, bring us sac, for I've a mighty thirst!"

Nell realized that their was no arguing with the man as a large pitcher liquor was brought out and poured into two cups. She accepted one of them and brought it gingerly to her lips, pretending to sip. She was not overly fond of the cloyingly sweet taste to begin with, and in her condition did not want to chance it. Her host, in contrast, downed his tankard in one long pull and signaled for more to be poured.

"A toast, to Princess Nell and our Prince Hal!" he shouted raising his mug.

Nell had no choice but to raise hers as well, not that she minded the sentiment of course. As all drank their fill, she hastily spilled some from her glass, offering a quick thank that the dirty rushes hid the puddle on the floor. Another man stood up and offered a toast of his own to the happy couple, necessitating another large spill. Quickly her cup was refilled.

And so it went, as all present seemed intent on saluting the happy couple, whether from genuine good will or a desire for more sac who could say. As the company became increasingly drunk, the toasts became increasingly bawdy, causing a flush to spread over Nell's face. Soon they were offering marital tips in sage voices that she was fairly certain young ladies of good breeding were not supposed to hear, but that she found far less alarming than she would have a month ago thanks to her time with Hal. All in all, she soon found herself having a good time in spite of herself, despite the now wet rushes on which she was standing and the dampness of her sleeves. 

"You whoreson filth, I vow I'll murder thee!" the booming voice broke through the loudest round of cheers as the door to the back room was wrested open with a bang.

Nell's mouth gaped open as she stared, sac spilling out of her carelessly tilted cup, at the violent vision of her husband. He was magnificent. His face was flushed with anger and his blue eyes burned with a cold fire of unsuppressed rage. Nostrils flared and jaw clenched, he looked truly ready to commit murder. His burgundy jacket was unbuttoned at the neck, allowing her a small, mouthwatering glimpse of his chest, and his hair was unkempt in the best possible way. In one large hand he held his sword, unsheathed and deadly, the other rested on a small knife at his belt. He looked like murder and rage and sex all rolled into one, and Nell found all of the moisture sinking from her mouth straight to her cunt as she gazed at him.

"Why Hal, come join our toasting to your bride!" the large man said after a silent moment that seemed to stretch on forever. "She is more lovely than you do deserve."

"Remove your hand from her, or by this sword, I will remove it from your bloated wrist!" Hal growled.

With the speed and grace of a cat he reached forward and pulled Nell from the man's quickly releasing grasp, securing her to his side. Nell stumbled, splashing more sac from her cup as she teetered into him.

"How are you love, tell me you are not hurt," he insisted, looking intently over her.

"What hurt! I am offended! Think you that? That we would do your lovely wife some harm?"

"What else is he to think, you hell-spawned goat, when you did snatch her from her very home!" a man Nell had not noticed before, so taken with her husband was she, spit the words out. 

He was dressed in a uniform like and yet so unlike those of the men who had abducted her that she could not believe she had fallen for the ruse for even a moment. His jerkin fit him precisely, and was spotless and bright. A professional competence and watchfulness radiated from every part of him, and he held his sword as though it was a natural appendage to his hand.

"Snatch her sir! No, you mistook us quite! We did invite the lass to visit us! That we may get to know her for ourselves and take the measure of his new wed wife!"

"I'll invite you to Hades for this trick, and all your minions that did do your work," Hal threatened, turning his thunderous glare on the men in the ill-fitting uniforms who suddenly glared, terrified, at their leader.

"My dearest lord, no harm did come to me," Nell at last found her voice, stepping around him and sliding her hand up his chest. She had meant the gesture to be mollifying, but found herself instead getting lost in how she could feel his muscles even under the hard leather of his coat. "Your friends did merely seek to satisfy that I had no dark motive you to wed."

"They are no friends of mine, but vile fiends!" Hal insisted, placing his hand over hers to stop it roaming as she could not resist trying to lower it to where his codpiece was drawing her attention. "I have been out of mind with worry, Nell!"

"Right sorry am I to cause you distress," she said, barely suppressing a giggle. She was struck with the strong suspicion that she might be as drunk on her husband's passionate presence as the others were on sac.

"Twas not you love, but these unlettered swine. You truly did not suffer at their hands?"

"No, not a bit. We have got on right well," she said, ending on an ill timed giggle that would have devastated her mother.

"My darling Nell, could it be your are drunk?" he asked in shock.

"Oh, fear it not, I did spill all my sac," she insisted.

"You thought to get her drunk on top of all?" he demanded. "I swear Falstaff, I'll be revenged on you!"

"Twas hospitality, and nothing more!" Falstaff said.

"Be thankful that our friendship in my youth and memories of fondness that I hold do save you from the fullness of my wrath," Hal's voice was a crack of a whip in the room. "Were it not so, I swear I'd kill you Jack. My wife is not a subject for your japes, nor some new toy for you to take to play. If anyone of you come near her more, I'll make him soon regret that he was born. Your company here past I thank you for, but from now on turn from me in the street. I do not wish to know you any more, or hold further conveyance with your lot."

"No, Hal, bethink you what you now do say! Don't be so hasty in your words my prince. We did just think to play a little jest!"

"I do not jest in matters of my wife," Hal cut him off. "As to my separation from you lot, I had decided ere your jape today that our paths now had reached the time to part. I thought to do so with some sad good cheer, as did become transgressions born of youth. But since you saw it fit to take from me the thing I hold above all others dear, I have nothing to say except goodbye, and keep from me and mine from this point on. As for Ned Poins, your partner in all this, as I begin to see the part he played to so distract me while you brought her here, tell him from me that if we two should meet his flesh shall know the bight of this my steel."

"And I will add my own warning to thee," the man with Hal said, iron in his voice, "some six of you I see in stolen weeds. Out of my deference to Prince Harry here I will not ask from whence such outfits came. But this I do instruct you, on your life. That you do strip you of those usurped clothes and straight way burn them till they are but dust. If any man from this time dare to go forth dressed up as you are now, his life is mine. And trust me, filth, the taking will be slow and cause you torturous pain ere I be done."

A fearful hush fell across the room. Not waiting to hear further arguments, Hal swept Nell up into his arms and made a dramatic exit from the public inn. He held her close to him despite her protests until they reached his horse, at which point he tossed her up onto Strumpet's back as if she were a doll. When he had mounted behind her, he pulled her hard against him again, as though he could not bear any distance between the two of them.

"Much thanks, Renaldo, for your company," Hal said as the proper guardsman mounted up on a smart grey beside them.

"I must confess, they were a sorry lot," Renaldo said with a wry laugh. "You hardly needed me when all was done. I will not ask, my lord, if you had part in making a procurement of their garb. I trust such acts will not be made again."

"You see too much, my old friend, for my peace," Hal said ruefully. "I promise, no more will aid their larks. I have most dearly learned my lesson well. For it almost did cost me my own heart."

"My lord, I swear to you, I am all right," Nell assured him as he navigated his horse through the slums. "They did not hurt me, were in their way kind."

"Do not you speak for them, I beg you Nell," he said, pressing his lips to her head. "My love, I never have been so afeared. I did not know who had abducted you. My father did deny it forcefully. Yes love, I did accost him in his state, and it played out as you can well conceive. After I realized you were not there, I dreaded that some enemy of mine did think to take out their revenge on you. It took some time for it to dawn on me that it was rather those who thought me friend."

"And I do think, misguided as it was, that friendship was indeed the cause of it. Well, that and fear of losing all your coin."

"I hate it, Nell, that such sins of my past have risen up to threaten you my love."

The hand not holding the reins of his horse slipped under her borrowed cloak and began roaming over her torso, as though assuring himself that she was there and whole. With the lustful memory of his rampant entrance into the pub still firmly in her mind, Nell closed her eyes and leaned into his caress. Soon he was nuzzling at her neck as well, seemingly indifferent to their public surroundings.

"I can not wait to get you home, my love, and take stock for myself that you are well," his meaning was not lost on her as his hand dipped lower to press between her legs where they straddled the horse.

"I fear, my lord, you must wait for a time," the strained voice of Renaldo interrupted them. "For much as I am loath to remind you, your royal father did command you both be brought to him as soon as she was found."

"Damnation, I had forgotten his words," Hal cursed with a sigh. "Well, one false king I have already faced. Lead on and let us go confront the true."

Nell leaned back against him, struggling to keep at bay her earlier anxiety. So she was to see the king today after all, and dressed as boy no less. But at least now Hal would be with her, and with his strong arm around her, there was nothing she could not face. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is there anything hotter than angry Hal? If so, I don't know what.


	26. Audience with the King

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hal and Nell face the King!

It was something of an understatement to say that Hal was not having the best day. Between his embarrassing scene at the palace and his confrontation with his former companions, he was having to take a good, hard look at his behavior, and he was not enjoying what he saw. His youthful indiscretions were fine when it had only been his safety and good name that were at risk; he could fend off any affronts on either flank, he knew. But today those indiscretions had put Nell and their unborn child in harms way, and that he could not abide.

Hal had loved others in his life of course. He still remembered the devastation he felt when his mother had passed away, for instance. He felt a filial affection for Jon and, to a lesser extent, his other siblings. In his own way, yes, Hal loved his father. It was sometimes a bitter, self-mocking love, but it was love nonetheless. He even, deep down where he blushed to look, love that old rascal Falstaff.

None of that had prepared him for the sweeping emotion he felt for the beautiful woman now seated in the circle of his arms on the saddle before him. If any harm should have befallen her, he would have burnt the Boars Head to the ground with all of those thieving reprobates inside. Add to that the fact that she was giving him the greatest gift a man could hope for - a child, heir of his body and product of their love for each other - and that the japes of careless fools had also put the well being of the babe at risk. Hal felt his blood begin to boil again just at the thought.

It was not, all things considered, the state of mind best suited for a second audience with his royal sire. Hal tried to keep to a minimum his interactions with Henry. It seemed best for both their sakes since conversations usually left them both in states of heightened agitation. Two in one day was a disaster waiting to happen. At best Hal knew he could expect a dressing down over his actions earlier that day, at worst... well, just let Henry try to take Nell away from him! He would learn that Hal was not a tame cat to be ordered about at will, but a Lion in his own right ready fight to defend his own.

In this mood he rode into his father's courtyard, helped his obviously anxious wife to dismount, and handed his reins to an expectant groom. Nell looked up at him with eyes clouded with anxiety and he smiled at her, hoping to shield his own worry from her.

"All will be well my love, I give my word," he told her softly, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"Tis not the way I hoped the time would come when you and I would once more meet the king," she sighed, giving him a shaky smile.

"Why no? How could we e'er improve on this?" he laughed, brushing her hair back from her face.

"For one, I might perhaps have worn a dress," she groaned.

"You look divine, my goddess, as you always do. Let any man say otherwise to me, and I will teach him better with my sword."

"Aye, that will ease our entrance to the court," she said with an eye roll. "Well, best to face the music and have done. Shall we proceed then to the lion's den?"

"Your bravery doth quite put me to shame. Onward, dear wife, to victory obtained."

Hand in hand, with a silent Renaldo shadowing their heels, they made their way down the twisted halls until they reached the entry to Henry's audience chamber. With a curt nod of his head, Hal signaled to the attendant to announce them. He would not repeat his faux pas of that morning and barge in unannounced. Better to pick his battles.

"His Royal Highness, Henry, Prince of Wales," the man intoned, "And Princess Eleanor to see you, Sire."

Well, Nell had been given her proper title. He supposed that was something. Wrapping his arm around her protectively, Hal sauntered into the room. A quick glance around showed it to be surprisingly empty of functionaries. Henry would of course have had advanced word of their arrival, the court was full of spies. Apparently it was a private audience with his wayward son that he desired.

"My lord and father, health be with you sir," he said by way of greeting, dipping his head in salute.

Nell stayed silent but dipped an elegant curtsy, prying herself free from his arm to do so. Henry slouched on his throne, eyes hooded as he looked over the pair. Renaldo, ever the vigilant servant, quickly dropped to his knee and then, at a wave from the king, took up his place beside and slightly behind the throne. As the silence stretched on, Hal let a small, ironic smile play about his lips, the one he knew Henry hated. His father sought to play power games, fine. He would wait the old bastard out.

"I am most sorry for the trouble, sire," Nell blurted out, stepping slightly forward. "I promise that I had it well in hand, but was yet grateful that you gave Hal help."

One of the king's eyebrows raised itself at her nervous outburst, and Hal closed his eyes briefly, unable to blame her. She did not have his years of sparring with the cold king to draw on. At last his father lifted his head and met Hal's eye.

“I see you managed to retrieve the girl,” Henry groused. “I can’t say that is an unmixed delight.”

"I am as always left quite humbled sir, by your enthusiasm for my joy."

"Presumptuous cub, who gave you leave to speak?" the king snapped as Nell elbowed Hal in the ribs. "Well now you know us guiltless in the crime, who was it then that took the girl from you? Or did she come at last into her wits and seek to fly from you all on her own? Tell me, Renaldo, where you found her out?"

"A drinking house in Eastcheap, good my lord," the guard said, with a quick glance towards Nell and Hal. "It seems the patrons of the public house did seek to make acquaintance of her grace."

"I do suppose it serves no good to ask if this be the same house that often times her loving husband hath been known to haunt?"

"It is the one, my king, I must confess. And that same rascal Falstaff, as he's called, did look to be the author of the prank."

"For which offense, too great for me to bear, I have henceforth exiled him from my life. If he or any of his merry band do seek me out then all that they will find shall be my door shut firmly in their face."

"He told the knight as much before we left," Renaldo confirmed when the king looked over at him, "in terms so stark they could not be misheard."

Henry rose from his throne and crossed to the window, staring out of it for some time. Once again time seemed to stretch on in silence. Hal could tell Nell was getting antsy again, and gave her hand a squeeze. She darted her eyes up to him and he shook his head slightly. He could understand her anxiety, he was feeling it himself. Unfortunately, any attempt to rush the king would only end in pushing him into anger. Finally Henry turned and walked back over, stopping to look penetratingly at Nell.

"For years God knows how I have strove to find a way to free him from the fat knight's sway. It seems instead of guards and royal writs I should have sent a pair of pretty eyes. If it is true that he has turned away from all these gross and undesirable ways, not just myself but all of this our realm would seem to be indebted now to you."

"I did no more than love him, majesty," Nell replied simply, blush staining her cheek.

"And if we are to talk of gratitude," Henry went on, ignoring her statement completely, "it seems mine must not end with this today. I hear from doctor Hobbs that it was you who cared for me when I was last beset."

Ah, there it was! The reason that there were no others in the room. He would not want any more people knowing of his seizures than absolutely necessary.

"I am right glad that I could be of help," Nell said. "Though Dr. Hobbs was not too long absent. I chanced to have seen something similar when I was learning to care for the ill."

"Your mother also, if I be correct, knew much of lore pertaining to the sick."

"She did my lord, and still knows more today."

"She and my younger son do think me blind, that I see not their shameful goings on. But I suppose at least in that one case I need not fear a wedding in the end. Which brings us back to you and the crown prince."

Hal, uncharacteristically quiet up until now, snapped to attention. His father met his eye and held it with an open appraisal. What he was looking for Hal was uncertain, but he seemed to find it at last, as he gave a nod of his head.

"I do not like the way you two were wed, in clandestine a manner gainst my will. I sometimes think your only goal in life is but to mock my wishes and my name."

"Oh do not think it father, tis not so. I seek to bring no shame upon our house, or any other way disgrace our name. I am a man full grown, my will's my own. But tell me, would you wish it otherwise than that the future king of this our realm, refuse to dance to any other's tune?"

"There maybe something there in what you say. When it doth comes to choosing your revolts, I must admit I greatly do prefer you to defy me for noble lass who bringeth out your chivalry and grace than for a brace of mottle pated fools who seek only to lead you into sin."

"Oh fear not sir, for this my lady wife doth lead me into heady sin enough!" Hal could not resist saying.

"Must you vex me thus you willful boy?" Henry growled, eyes flashing. "Tis pain enough to speak what I must say without you making matters harder still."

"And what, good father, is it you would say?"

"That since you have been married in the church, and Lady Eleonor is of fit rank, kin to the royal families of name, and seeing as she has in some small ways been of good use already to our throne..."

"Come, out with it sir! Say what you would say!"

"Keep silent, Hal, and let your father speak!" Nell snapped at him, with a glare to equal Henry's.

"I only hope that there will come a day when some of her wit doth rub off on you. But being as it may, know you my son, that I will to your marriage make no cross."

"Your Majesty, you have my deepest thanks!" Nell said, sinking once more into a curtsy and shooting Hal a speaking look.

"And mine, as well, my father, add to that," he hastened to say, the specter of fear at last lifting from them. "But tell me father, ere your fit did come, do you remember aught of what we spoke?"

"But little Harry, if the truth be told," Henry admitted, sitting back in his throne. "And that I do is shrouded in a haze."

"Then let me tell you once again, good sir. There is another reason to rejoice. For my beloved, clever little wife is even now expectant with our heir. And so you see, the marriage hath been blessed, and God as well as you do smile on it."

"I will not count the days upon my hands that you two have been married under God and in union have conceived this child," Henry remarked dryly. "I only will say that it pleases me."

"It pleases me as well, I must confess," Hal said with a cocky grin, embracing Nell and making her squeal. "And now, if you'll excuse us, majesty, it has been quite the day for my dear bride. If we may have your leave sir to depart, I wish to take her home and tend to her."

Only on the last words did he let his eyes go hot as he looked at Nell. 

"Well, do so then. And god go with your both. But one last thing that I would ask of you. The lady is a princess now by right. See to it, would, you, she be properly dressed. The bills for this you may all send to me."

"Why father, there is naught would please me more!" Hal grinned, bowing his exit.

When the reached the courtyard, he tossed her up onto his horse.

"Well, lovely wife, is seems the day is one! How doth it feel to be a true princess?"

"A bit unreal, if I am speaking true. But Hal, how I do wish I'd worn a dress!"

"Think not of that, for I shall see to all," he told her, a glint in his eye. "And when I have a wardrobe made for you appropriate for my own sweet princess, you will not need to fear his grace's ire, for none but me will ever see it worn!"

Nell blushed and he grinned wider, imagining just what he would have made for her at his father's expense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just one more chapter left for our royal love birds! I promise it will be full of smutty goodness!


	27. All's Well

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hal and Nell return home and celebrate in the best way possible.

It was gone. The constant fear, hidden away but never fully suppressed, that had haunted her through the otherwise blissful weeks with Hal. The anxiety that at any time the king, ultimate authority in their world, no matter how his son may bluster, could swoop in and render their marriage null and void. The weight of living under that cloud was gone, and despite the long, trying day that she had gone through Nell felt an ebullient burst of energy that she could scarce contain.

The ride back to their home on Hal's steed seemed to take a lifetime, so desperate was she to be alone with him. He was feeling it too, she knew he was. She could sense the electricity surging through his body where he held her close against him. She could feel something else as well, hard and insistent against. It only served to ratchet up her own aching need. Unthinkingly she squirmed in the saddle, rubbing up against his arousal and smirked as he groaned softly into her hair.

"I warn you, wife of mine, if you persist to temp me so with your delicious form I cannot guarantee I will behave. Unless you wish the whole of London town should witnesseth my all consuming lust, I do suggest you hold yourself most still and not provoke my most debauched desires."

"Perhaps that is just what I had in mind," she suggested, giggling. "For you to throw me down from this your horse, and mount your wife instead where we are now."

Nell could not believe she had spoken such words aloud! The sheer naughtiness of them made her giddy. Even better was the way Hal's whole body stiffened before he dragged her impossibly closer to him. She was not entirely certain, but she could have sworn she heard him curse under his breath.

"I've said before that you must be a witch, and so you show yourself by these your words. Perchance you think to tease me for your sport, but know that I am not so tame a man that I will bear much more and keep in check. For by the god above, my dearest Nell, I swear that I could take you here and now and never worry what the world would say. For if I ever thought to lust before, such feelings were but weak and idle larks compared unto the need I feel for you upon this very moment we are in. Then pray you take some pity on your prince, lest I should cast us both into disgrace."

The heat of his words sent a warm glow throughout her, and she contented herself with leaning into his embrace while he guided their horse through the twilit streets, one hand on the rein and one around her waist. The fact that she had brought this proud, puissant prince to such a level of want was a heady one. He had been willing to defy everything for her, even if it meant forfeiting the crown. His gamble had paid off, and they had it all now - marriage, impending parenthood, and eventually a kingdom to rule together.

More than that, she had been surprised to find an odd level of kindred spirit with the king. In time, she thought, they might even become friends. She deeply desired this, if for no other reason than that she would dearly love to bring Hal and his father into a more congenial relationship. She had been moved of late by the improved relationship with her own mother. Theirs would never be a traditional mother-daughter relationship - how could it be when neither of them was in any way traditional? - but they had found the love for each other that had ebbed out over their years of exile. 

At last they reached the mansion and Hal knocked impatiently on the door. When the gate was opened the poor keeper was at great pains to express his intense relief at her safe return. She could tell that the man wanted desperately to apologize and be absolved for his guilt in allowing her to be taken. Unfortunately for him, both his lord and lady had no time to spare to soothe his jangled nerves.

"All is forgiven, now see to my horse," Hal all but barked at him, jumping down and then aiding Nell more gently. "Her grace and I are going to our rooms. Unless we call for aught specifically, let know one on their life disturb us thence. Nay, even if the King himself appear, say to him that our door is firmly shut and we will seek him out some other time."

"It shall be, good my prince, as you command," the guard stuttered, eyes firmly on the ground at his feet.

With that, Hal grabbed Nell and, as though she were a bag of something bought at market, flung her over one shoulder and carried her towards the stairs to their room. Nell struggled for breath as she laughed, hanging upside down, and beat his back with her little fists, demanding to be put back down. She may as well have been beating the stone of the building walls for all the good it did. Her battle honed husband paid no heed to her protests, but marched to their chambers and tossed her unceremoniously onto the bed.

"And now, my wanton wife, what sayest thou?" he demanded, standing over her with his hands on his hips. His face was stern, but the obvious bulge in his pants gave lie to his displeasure. "What kind of princess taunteth so her prince, and seeks to lead him into public sin?"

"The kind who marries such a rascal prince that he would tempt the saints themselves to stray," she answered saucily, raising an eyebrow. "For who, once looking at your noble self, could help but wish for total ravishment?"

"So it is ravishment that you desire?" he asked, eyes dark as he stalked towards the bed. "I think that I can manage such a chore."

Hands shooting out, he grabbed her ankles and pulled her to the bottom of the bed. Nell shrieked with alarm, unable to fight against his strength, not that she truly wanted to. With an evil grin, Hal reached for the lacings of her breeches and made quick work of the knots, pulling the soft material down her legs. 

"So long a leg on such a tiny wench," he mused, lifting one and running his hand up it caressingly. 

Bending down, he kissed the inside of her ankle, a gesture that startled her with how intimate it felt. Lifting it higher, he began to kiss a trail up her inner leg, taking his time as he made his way towards her knee, and then higher still to where she dearly wanted him. As he reached the apex though, he lifted his head and smiled wickedly at her.

"Perfection that, and look, here is its twin!" he said in mock surprise, switching to the other leg and beginning the whole slow, wonderful torture anew.

Nell dropped her head back onto the bed, resigned to let him have his way with her. She knew that he was intentionally staying away from her center, drawing out her desire. It was a form of delicious punishment for teasing him on the ride back. As much as she was frantic for him to fill her, or at least touch her dripping core, she could not deny the feel of his mouth on her was heaven. 

"Why, look you here, my wife you are all wet!" he gasped when he at last had made it to the top of her second thigh. "One might believe you wanted something love."

"I want but you, my husband and my lord," she whined, batting her eyes at him entreatingly as he ran his fingers all around her most intimate area, but never let them touch her desperate pussy.

"So desperate are you then my naughty girl?" he asked, fingers finally just ghosting over her folds. "But I do not know if I should indulge your wicked wants and so enable them. It is my duty as your husband, love, to set a good example over you."

"Enough of all the teasing, I call match!" she gasped as he slid one finger into her. "I beg of you to come and take me, Hal!"

"Well, how could I resist such sweet request?" he chuckled, withdrawing his hand to make quick work of his clothing. 

Nell took the opportunity to loose her own shirt, and then on impulse, as she knew he loved it, quickly untied her hair to let it fall around her face.

"The beauty of you leaves me quite in awe," Hal told her, staring down at where she lay naked on the bed. "All teasing set aside, I never knew that I could need the way that I need you."

"I need you just as much, my handsome lord," she smiled almost shyly at him. 

"Then I am here to meet that need, my love," he purred, covering her body with his.

The kiss was long and tender, mouths saying without words all the relief coursing through them both. The last barrier, the secret one that each had been unable to completely dismantle deep inside them, was gone. Nell willingly gave all of her soul up to him and felt his in return. Her hands ran over his body, feeling the numerous scars, long healed, on his warriors body. They lent him a fierceness that could not be denied, even by his beauty. Her legs, so thoroughly kissed no long ago, twined themselves around his hips, bringing him closer against him.

"Why, tis a greedy wench I've married," he laughed, sensing what she was after. "But since you do but seek the same as I..."

With a long, smooth thrust he pushed within her. Nell let out a cry as he entered her, loving how complete she felt with him inside her walls. He did not wait, but immediately began to move within her, and her hips rose and fell in time to his.

The sound of his wordless grunts were music to her ears. She loved it when he spoke to her, his deliciously dirty words shocking and arousing her still comparatively innocent ears, but the noises coming from him now were almost beyond the ability of speech. She herself could do no more than pant and moan as he pressed her into the mattress, claiming her with an urgency that she echoed. 

Not content with their placement, Hal grabbed her legs, one then the other, and raised them to his shoulders, so that she was folded almost in half. The new angle had a remarkable effect as he hit deeper still within her, massaging that place that made her loose herself. As his lips found the pulse point beneath her ear, Nell found all of her muscles tensing. Shuddering electricity ran through her as she clamped down around him, lips meeting his as she came hard beneath him. As she choked his cock with her inner walls, milking him frantically, he yelled out her name with a string of profanities and she felt him spill himself into her.

Hal groaned as he gently lowered her legs from their place around his neck to the bed, careful to keep from slipping out of her. She understood. She wanted him to stay there, connected to her, for as long as possible. He rolled off of her, pulling her with him onto their sides, and smiled at her with almost boyish happiness.

"I hope you learned your lesson, Nell my love," he told her with mock severity.

"I did, I thank you, most obliging lord," she said, grinning back at him. "That is if I do want such thrilling love as will go long to satisfy my needs, I only have to tease you in the streets, and you will most obliging see to it."

"I swear, you'll be the death of me, my sweet," he laughed heartily, rolling his eyes. "But it did come to me some time today that if you are amenable to it, perchance we shall not oft be in the streets."

"What mean you Hal? I do not follow you."

"I have given the matter no small thought. This city, for all that I love it, Nell, can also be a rank and evil place. If we are soon to have a little one, how better would it be to go from hence and bring them up in more bucolic land."

"And have you such a place in mind, my Hal? As much as I do love my cottage well, I do not think it fitting for your state."

Hal smiled as he twined his fingers through hers, toying absently with her wedding ring.

"There is a castle, sits in Danbury. For years it hath been empty since the crown did seize it from its proper family. I think, if I did put it to the king, he would not scorn to let us have it, love. What say you Nell, would it please you my wife, to raise our child where yourself was raised?"

For a moment Nell could only stare at him in shock. She had thought his suggestion, for all his saying otherwise, a mere idle fancy. But this... He had obviously given the matter some thought. To go home. Home where she had lived before King Henry had taken the crown from unfortunate Richard. Where she had learned to read, to ride, to care for her people. She had not looked on it since that fateful day when she had been bundled into a carriage, no horse for her to ride since her Audax had been taken and sold, and driven away. She had tried not to even let herself think of the castle, so far beyond her reach did it seem to her.

"If you don't want it Nell, say you but so," Hal said quietly. "I know the memories might pain you love."

Startled, Nell realized that she had been staring at their joined hands, her face curtained from him by the fall of her hair. He would not be able to see her eyes, to know her reaction to his offer, and she could hear the anxiety clearly in his voice. Blinking back tears, she raised her head and looked with adoration into the face of the man she loved.

"If you had search across the earth itself," she told him, smiling shakily, "I do not think it ever could be found, unless it be your own unmatched self, a single thing that would want for more."

Silently, Hal raised her hand to his lips and kissed it, relief washing over his features.

"But are you sure you wish for this as well?" she asked, wanting to make sure he was not offering a romantic gesture he would soon regret. "You are unused to rusticating, Hal, and may soon come to miss the city life when you are stuck up in the wild north."

"If you are with me I will want for naught," he assured her. "We will, besides, from time to time perforce, come back so I might do my duties here. But for the most part I do think it best if our new family finds our own home. The actions of this day made it plain clear a turning point has come into my life. I do not wish to cleave to my old path, but blaze a new one hand and hand with you."

Nell looked at him, so earnest and yet still with that glint in his eye as he randomly toyed with her body that assured her he was still the same rouge she had rescued month ago. How had she ever managed to have luck enough to find such a perfect combination of prince and cad?

"What is it love? Why do your eyes to weep?" he asked, brushing a tear from beneath one.

"A simple matter - I am happy Hal. I never knew such happiness could be."

"I know what you do speak, my darling Nell, for I do feel it too my dearest love."

When he kissed her this time it was slow and sweet, a gentle, happy kiss. Soon enough she had rolled on top of him, his cock hardening inside her. She had everything she needed. He had given her a home, in every sense of the word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we have it! They have their "happily ever after". There will be a short epilogue sometime next week, but I want to take the time now to thank you all for sharing their story with me! It has been so fun writing for them, and I learned a lot in the process! I really appreciate you all sticking with it.


	28. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look into Hal and Nell's life as parents.

Hal's horse was in a lather as he drew rein in his castle bailey. Both he and the mount were breathing heavily, Strumpet from exertion, Hal from the same but mixed liberally with fear and anticipation. He had outpaced the messenger sent to collect him some time back; he had no patience for the man's slower mount. Now, as he threw his reins and gloves to the eagerly waiting young page who had run out to greet him, he felt a brief surge of pride at the speed in which his aging mare had handled the distance.

"Have you more news for me? What say you lad?" he asked the young boy who nervously took control of the large horse.

"No change, my lord, from when the word was sent," he answered with amusing formality, ducking his head. 

Hal nodded and absently tousled the boy's hair before took off at a pace toward the inner halls of the keep. He hated this. Hated that there was nothing he could do. For a man of action such as himself there were few things worse. An enemy he was powerless to face, that he was forced to allow Nell to fight alone, was designed to make him mad. Too many women, even nobles with the highest level of care, were carried off in childbirth. If such should happen to Nell...

Shaking his head in irritation, Hal forced his mind to refrain from completing that thought. Nell was a strong, healthy woman and still young. She was certain to rise from her confinement just as hale and radiant as she had entered it. More so, since she would have a new bundle of joy to add to their family.

"Your highness, it is good that you have come," a maid waiting outside the door to his wife's chambers said. "The princess will be glad to hear you're home."

"How does my wife? Is she in too much pain?"

"Some pain is common sire, and can't be helped," she demurred, making him grimace.

From the other side of the door he heard a loud cry, and it was all he could do not to knock the poor maid over as he lurched towards it.

"The midwife says no men may come inside," the girl told him miserably. "I pray you, sire, you must show patience now."

Patience was not one of Hal's virtues. As the girl slipped back into the birthing room he began pacing back and forth in the long, cool hallway.

This was not supposed to have happened today. It was still a month until Nell was due to come to bed of their child. That was why Hal had been out surveying the surrounding fields rather than at home when her labor had started. He knew that for the last few months he had been driving his headstrong, independent wife to distraction with his constant hovering. He couldn't help it. She looked so delicate, tiny framed but stomach stretched round with his child, tottering along the stone halls and stairways. He wanted to wrap her in down blankets and keep her in bed until her time came. He had made the mistake of voicing this desire aloud in her presence, and his punishment was the sharp side of her tongue.

"Think you I am some fragile maid of court, unable to do aught for mine own self?" she had snapped at him. "I tell you, Hal, if you don't give me room, the knife which you so kindly gifted me when first we two were wed will find a home in some convenient portion of your flesh."

Hal had lifted up his hands in surrender, knowing by experience better than to try and dictate to his wife. He might be the titular lord of the castle, and next in line for the very throne of England, but no one would ever rule Princess Nell D'Amboise. Well... at least not out of the bed chamber at any rate...

"I saw to Strumpet as you taught me, sir," a high, wavering voice said. 

Hal looked down to see the page who had assisted his entrance looking up at him. Huge grey blue eyes stared at him from beneath a shock of unruly golden curls. Despite an attempt to look assured, the boy was obviously terrified by the events going on beyond the thick wooden door. Muffled as they were, the noises of Nell's labor could not help but penetrate into the hall.

"I have no doubt that you did all just right," Hal smiled at the boy, trying to hide his own anxiety. The boy scuffed one shoe on the stone floor and looked down, biting his lip in a familiar gesture. "Was there ought else you wanted to ask me?"

"She will not come to her harm from all of this?" he asked in a rush. "Galbert the kitchen boy was telling tales about a village woman who did die because her baby came too soon to birth."

Hal thought that he would like to thrash Galbert the kitchen boy soundly. Such stories were the last thing that needed to be voiced allowed. Hal made the sign of the cross superstitiously. 

"She will be right as rain, you wait and see," he said aloud, willing it to be so. "But if I might ask something now from you - I am a bit at odds and ends just now. They will not let me in the room you see. Perhaps if you go fetch the wooden swords, we might contrive to help the time to pass."

"Oh papa! Do you mean it? You and me?" the boy asked, bursting into a smile that displayed the missing front tooth he had lost the week before. "But mama says we must not in the halls!"

"Well, mama is not here to see it, son," Hal winked. "Go on, Harry, ere I do change my mind!"

"Oh, you would not! I'll be back in a trice!"

Excitedly Harry tore off down the hall in search of the toy practice swords. Hal grinned, remembering his own youthful excitement when one of the knights would deign to spar with him. Not that his father had ever done so, such a thing was beneath the austere dignity of Henry even before he rose to the throne. But Hal was determined to be a different sort of father than his own had been. While it was not always easy, he did his best to make time for young Harry as often as he could. He himself had taught the boy to ride his first pony, a sturdy little thing absurdly named Lion Heart. Harry had been after Hal to start his instruction with the sword, but Nell had been resistant. It served her right, he thought illogically, for putting him through this excruciating wait again.

At least when Harry had been born Elouise had been there to tend to Nell. No matter how Nell's mother might occasionally grate on Hal's nerves, he knew there was no better midwife in all of England. There was no way under heaven that she would let any harm come to her daughter or grandchild. Hal had not enjoyed that night either, (nor, she was quick to point out, had Nell) but he knew his loved ones were in good hands.

Alas, Elouise had left them two years back, succumbing to a fever that swept through the region. Jon grieved her still, although he had at last allowed negotiations to begin for his betrothal to a Spanish heiress. The devotion that his brother and Nell's mother held for each other had never ceased to amaze Hal. He wished with all his heart the woman was here now, ordering things with her iron will wrapped in a sweet, soft, French voice.

"Look, I found them, papa! Here, _en guarde!"_ a wooden sword banged itself into Hal's leather clad thigh, causing him to stumble.

"Unsporting, son, to strike an unarmed man!" Hal grumbled, plucking the other wooden weapon from his giggling son. "You take after your mother I do see."

"I'd rather I was like her with the bow, for she is much a better shot than you!"

"Why you shall soon regret that, jackanapes!"

"You know it's true, papa! To lie's a sin!" Harry teased him audaciously as he struck the opening fight of a duel. "But even though I want to shoot like her, I still desire to learn to fight like you! For she says you are England's greatest knight!"

"Oh, does she now! What else does mama say?"

"That you are handsomer than she thinks good, and have the charm to make the birds to sing. I do not understand that, honestly. Why would it not be good to handsome be? And birds sing on their own, they need no help!"

"About the mysteries of the female mind, you'll find there's much we men will never know," he sighed, and watched his son absorb that seriously. "But now, adjust your feet a bit apart, and hold your sword like so, there's a good lad."

By the time an hour had passed Hal was worn out. His son, it seemed, was a more tiring opponent that his master at arms! Much of it was due to laughter, which Harry resented a bit as he took all of this quite seriously. Still, the boy confined himself to glaring at his father and redoubling his efforts, not wanting to complain and perhaps have the magical opportunity stolen away from him. All in all, he absorbed Hal's lesson with remarkable quickness. It was not too surprising - he was an intelligent lad and quick footed as well. Hal was convinced he would be unbeatable with the right training, and felt a happy pride when he finally dipped his sword in surrender.

"I am quite vanquished, sir, the field is yours!" he said, bowing to his eager son who had just managed to block a quick attack with his practice sword.

"You mock me papa, and you let me win!" Harry said mutinously.

"I do not on my honor, I protest! You have the lesson just as it was taught! Keep you the sword and practice what you learned, and we will fight again tomorrow morn."

"You mean it? I can keep the swords with me?" Harry's face lit up like the sun.

"As long as you let not your mother know. She has too much to worry her just now," it was a coward's way out, but Hal did not care just then.

"Why did she need to have another child?" Harry asked, coming to sit next to Hal on the window seat. "Was not she happy when it was we three?"

"Oh, we were both quite happy fear not that," Hal said gently, putting his arm around his son. "You are the best son one could ever want. But think of all the love that we three have. There is so much, that we have some to spare. Why not then give some to another babe, and then in time we will get their love back. You see the thing your mother taught to me is that with love the more you do bestow, the more you come to have back for yourself."

"Well, I think it is still a lot of fuss."

"It is, but worth it in the end, you'll see."

They sat like that for some time, Hal taking comfort from the boy snuggled up against him. He was often surprised by how openly affectionate Harry was, but Nell had assured him that it was only natural when a child was treated with love himself. It was not, after all, as though Harry was weak in any way. He was a mischievous child forever up to some lark or prank. Hal was surprised that his hair had not turned grey from all the anxiety the boy caused him. If he sometimes thought that it was a just punishment for his own wild youth, he tried not to dwell too much on it.

A loud yell from the birthing chamber suddenly brought both father and son to their feet, identical looks of terror on their faces, should anyone have been there to see it.

"Go, seek out Duncan boy, and bring him here," Hal ordered his son in a voice straining for normality. 

"But why? Papa, is mama not alright?"

"I'm sure she's fine, but bring the old man here."

In truth, Hal doubted that there was anything Duncan, almost blind with his advanced years though his mind was sharp as ever, could do. He mostly hoped to get the boy out from under foot for a moment or two. At first he thought Harry would rebel, but one stern look sent the lad scurrying away, promising to bring his tutor back in a moment. 

As soon as his son was round the corner, Hal could bear it no longer. Charging to the door, he banged on it with his whole strength, calling out for admittance.

"My lord, my lord, you must not come inside," the little maid insisted, opening the door but a crack.

"So help me, Rose, if you don't let me in, I'll get a ram and break the whole door down!"

"Oh let him in, if he be such a child," Maud's acerbic voice sounded from within.

Feeling an absurd surge of victory, Hal muscled past Rose and into the room, eyes going instantly to the bed. Lying there, limp and bedraggled, was the love of his life. Nell's hair, usually a living mass of wavy golden streaked brown, was frazzled and sticking out in different directions. Her face was as red as if she had been out in the sun for days with no hat, and dark circles made her grey blue eyes stand out more than normal. He had never seen her look more beautiful.

"My love, my love, tell me you are alright!" he cried out, racing to his side to claim her limp, warm hand in his.

"What children men can be, give her some space!" Maud chided him from across the room where she busied herself with something.

"It is alright, Maud. I am glad he's here. Yes, Hal, though I must look a fright by now, I am in fact more well than I can say."

"You're sure my darling? You'd tell me the truth?"

"Have done, your wife and daughter are both well." 

"Thank god tis so - wait - said you daughter Maud?"

"I did, an if you wait a breath, then I shall introduce you to the girl."

"Oh Hal, she is so beautiful, my love!" Nell beamed at him, eyes bright.

"She is a blob of red with golden fuzz," Maud huffed unsentimentally from where Hal now realized he could hear soft noises of a babe. "But all in all, I'll say she'll serve the turn."

As Hal and Nell watched in awe, Maude brought over a tiny bundle swaddled in a pale yellow blanket. As she placed the babe down onto Nell's naked chest, Hal caught the tear falling silently down the old woman's cheek and grinned at her in silent thanks before turning his attention to his daughter.

She was, as had been described, a red blob. Her face, pink and blotching, was scrunched up and fussing. As she lay on her mother, Nell gently urged her head until she instinctively found her breast and, after a few false starts, latched on and began to suck. Watching the tiny human crowned with a patch of golden down on her head, Hal's own eyes grew misty. How could one man be given this much joy?

"Is everything alright? Duncan is here!" Harry's voice called flutelike from the doorway.

"Is there ought I can do? What is the matter?" Duncan's paper rasp followed.

"Nothing, dearest friend, we all are well," Nell answered warmly. "Harry, come and meet your sister, dear."

Nervously, Harry approached the bed. At first he screwed up his face at the sight of the baby nursing, but after a moment, his expression softened he reached out a small hand to touch her hair tentatively.

"Is that all that she does? She isn't much," he decided after a moment.

"Not now, but that will change as time goes by," Nell told him, placing her hand against his cheek. "You have a sister to look after now, and she will look to you for many things. You must protect her until she is grown. But though we love her very, very much, your papa and I always will love you, and you need never fear she takes your place."

"How could she, when she's such a little thing?" Harry laughed. "Does she even have a proper name?"

Hal looked at Nell in question. They had not wanted to settle on a name until they saw the child. It was an odd superstition that she had, but he had decided their was no harm in humoring her. After all, she was the one doing all of the work. His contribution had been nothing but enjoyment.

"I think, if it would please you mother well, I'd like to name your sister Elouise. In honor of your grandmama, of course."

"No name could please me more, my dearest love," Nell told him, chin trembling as she held back tears.

"Your mother would be honored by the choice," Duncan added from where he hovered across the room. "And so the D'Amboise ladies venture on."

"Well, hello Ellie, if that is your name. I am your brother, Harry, so know. As long as you don't try to steal my toys, or try to ride my pony, we'll get on. And when you're big enough to go outside, I'll take you on adventures just for fun!"

"Oh, god forbid! Now there'll be two of them!" Maud shuddered as she brought Nell a glass of water.

"Aye, two of them for now, but there is time!" Hal grinned, kissing his wife's forehead. "And I do so enjoy to make them with my wife."

"I may need just a moment to forget before we talk of having any more," Nell warned him, laughing softly. 

"Well until then I'll be content with two," he promised. "Though we should keep in practice, just in case."

"As saucy now as when I found you first, all injured from your tumble from your horse."

"Papa tumbled from his horse? Tell me!" Harry demanded, wide eyed.

"Oh, I did no such thing, your mother lies!" Hal insisted.

"Tis no such thing! I found him passed out cold! For certs you must have heard this tale before?" Nell smiled.

"Not I, but tell it now! I want to hear!"

"Perhaps the tale be not fit for his ears," Hal suggested, wanting to weasel out of the disastrous beginning. 

"I'm old enough, papa, I'm almost six!" Harry boasted.

"As old as that, well, I will tell you then," Nell grinned evilly. "It was an autumn day, much like today..."

Hal closed his eyes, conceding defeat as Nell began the heavily edited story of how they came to meet. In truth he did not much mind. It was embarrassing that he had been unseated, yes, but when he looked at all the good that had come of it... well, that little forest interlude had been the most fortuitous event in his life! He would not change it for the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much! I can't tell you how much the support of this story has meant to me. I love you all and have enjoyed sharing Hal & Nell's love story with you!!!


End file.
